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Blog post

Do Generalist Platforms Scale to Healthcare?

January 29, 2026

Alia Paavola

Why Generalist DSPs Don’t Always Meet Healthcare’s Standards.

Many demand side platforms claim to perform well for healthcare brands, but few deliver the depth of expertise that this specialized vertical needs. Healthcare brings strict privacy and regulatory standards, a heightened responsibility to the audiences it serves, and unique engagement opportunities that generalist platforms are not built to handle. When brands don’t have access to these capabilities, they’re leaving real money on the table.

This blog will dive into 10 questions to help you assess if a programmatic partner has the healthcare expertise required to deliver on your industry-specific needs. It also offers a comparison chart for PulsePoint’s healthcare-specific capabilities vs. traditional generalist platforms.

10 Questions to Uncover Healthcare Expertise in Programmatic

The following questions and topics will help you understand how different programmatic platforms handle health-specific marketing needs. For non-healthcare specific questions to ask, check out our other blog on vetting programmatic partners.

1. Audience Validation – How is their NPI database sourced and validated to ensure accuracy and compliance?

2. Reach vs. Realized Reach – How many HCPs in your specialty or sub-specialty can they engage specifically during the timeframe of your campaign?

3. Timing and Relevance – Can they detect when an HCP is most receptive to brand messaging, based on behavior, context, or clinical triggers?

4. HCP-DTC Coordination – Can they create a consolidated HCP-DTC view and apply insights from it to align messaging across audiences?

5. Endemic Environments – Do they deliver HCP messaging within trusted, high-value endemic environments at scale, during moments of high intent?

6. Omnichannel Orchestration – Can they coordinate outreach across a full omnichannel suite, including search, social, e-newsletters, EHR, and open internet?

7. Real-time Optimization – Do they provide adaptive optimization that learns in real time and refines campaign performance automatically?

8. Pricing Transparency – How integrated is their platform, and do they offer clear targeting and reporting without hidden fees or opaque markups?

9. Compliance and Privacy – Are their methodologies purpose-built for healthcare, adhering to HIPAA and other regulatory standards?

10. Clinical Outcomes – Can they connect exposure to prescribing or other clinical outcomes to demonstrate true ROI?

PulsePoint vs. Generalist DSPs for Healthcare Programmatic

Here’s a look at why PulsePoint is a go-to choice for many healthcare brands. PulsePoint is purpose-built for healthcare, designed specifically so pharma marketers get the audiences, solutions, support and results they need to move the needle on their business.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how PulsePoint compares to more generalized DSPs. Generalists often don’t have the same power as PulsePoint.

Category	Most Generalist DSPs	PulsePoint
Validation	NPI lists are matched against third party databases.	NPI database is first-party sourced and continuously validated to ensure accuracy and compliance.
Realized Reach	HCP reach is variable over the course of the campaign, and may not cover relevant specialties or sub-specialties.	Designed to reach up to 90% of HCPs in your target audience with confidence.
Relevance	Use passive historical data from partners to target HCPs by NPI, specialty, or other identifiable criteria that were relevant at a past moment in time.	Goes beyond the who to detect when an HCP is most receptive to brand messaging based on behavior, context, or clinical triggers.
HCP–DTC Coordination	Won’t always have clinical coordination between these two core audience sets to create a consolidated HCP-DTC view.	Creates a consolidated HCP-DTC view and enables real-time activation to align messaging across audiences.
Endemic Environments	Delivers HCP messaging across the open internet and with select endemic publishers via third-party partners.	PulsePoint delivers HCP messaging within trusted, exclusive, and high-value endemic environments at moments of high intent (Ex: EHRs & Medscape).
Omnichannel Coordination	Coordination across channels may rely on third-party partnerships instead of first-party data, which means data can be disjoined and not actionable for the next-best engagement.	Provides robust omnichannel coordination across channels like EHR, search, social, display, CTV, and more with each HCP at the center, because of our access to proprietary, first-party data.
Real-Time Optimization	Optimize based on exposure, frequency, and media engagement.	Adaptive Optimization™ considers real-time digital and clinical relevance of each HCP within a target audience and prioritizes those of most value to a brand while balancing frequency and scale.
Pricing Transparency	Pricing and transparency varies widely by DSP and their inventory. Double check you know the full pricing structure, ensure you know about all hidden fees, and understand inventory sourcing.	PulsePoint is upfront with our costs, which are reflective of what it means to upkeep a healthcare platform within compliance and privacy expectations, and being the only DSP with a direct first-party publisher relationship.
Compliance & Privacy	Check the DSP’s compliance and privacy safeguards, especially in relation to privacy laws.	PulsePoint’s products and methodologies are built with privacy at their core, purpose-built for healthcare and adhering to NAI principles, privacy laws, and regulations.
Measurement, Insights, & Outcomes	Ensure that the generalist DSP goes beyond media metrics to give you the business measurements you need, such as clinical outcomes.	PulsePoint not only connects real-time brand exposure to prescribing outcomes, but also automates performance optimization mid-flight.

FAQs About Healthcare Programmatic Ad Platforms

Is healthcare programmatic different from general programmatic advertising?

Yes! Healthcare programmatic differs from general programmatic because it needs to adhere to stricter compliance laws and must ensure access to specialized inventory to reach HCPs across digital touchpoints like EHRs and trusted medical journals.

How do programmatic partners ensure data privacy and HIPAA compliance?

Programmatic healthcare marketing partners like PulsePoint ensure privacy-preserved targeting with safeguards such as de-identified claims data, secure hosting, and routine audits.

What audience types can be reached on healthcare programmatic platforms?

For programmatic health targeting, healthcare marketers build audience lists of verified healthcare professionals and patient cohorts. Though some DSPs offer access to payer audiences as well.

What metrics are available in healthcare programmatic?

‍DSPs that are built for healthcare will track metrics beyond impressions, such as script lift, NPI reach, and HCP engagement. Tying performance to clinical outcomes can help healthcare marketers drive meaningful results.

Meet PulsePoint: The Programmatic Partner that Just Gets Healthcare

PulsePoint is purpose-built for healthcare, offering unparalleled access to proprietary health data, verified NPI lists, and the safeguards needed for your organization to use privacy-safe targeting to reach your audience and deliver better health outcomes. Ready to see why PulsePoint is the best programmatic health platform? Contact us to learn more today or download our programmatic partner buyer’s guide to learn more.

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