Episode 15: PCC Life Sciences Commercial Dataset: Turning Long-Term Care Data Into Actionable Insights

Andie Cartwright

Welcome back to Better Living Through Data. I'm Andie Cartwright, and I'm here with Anthony Pero. Today we're digging into something that sounds very, very data-heavy on paper, but it's actually pretty practical once you break it down: the Commercial Dataset from PointClickCare Life Sciences.

Anthony Pero

Yeah, and this is a good one for commercial teams because it's really about turning long-term care and post-acute care activity into usable insight. Not just interesting charts, not just historical reporting... actual signals that help teams understand where patients in need of therapies may be, how prescribing is moving, and what patterns are developing across the market.

Andie Cartwright

Exactly. And when we say Commercial Dataset, we're talking about a commercial insights product built around long-term care and post-acute care data. So if you're in market access, sales, brand, analytics, those kinds of functions, this is meant to help you see what's happening across a broad network of long-term care facilities in the U.S.

Anthony Pero

Right. And one thing I like here is the use-case framing. Clients are equipped to reach patients in need of therapies, understand prescription patterns, and uncover insights as they happen. I know "as they happen" can sound a little buzzy, but in this case the key detail is important: the insights are available within a week of data acquisition.

Andie Cartwright

Which, in healthcare commercial terms, is fast. I mean, maybe that's the marketer in me, but if you're used to waiting on lagged datasets and then building strategy around what already happened a month or two ago, one-week latency feels a lot more actionable.

Anthony Pero

It does. And that timing matters because long-term care isn't static. Facilities change. Prescribing behavior shifts. New residents enter the system. If your data is too old, you're making decisions with a rearview mirror. With this, teams can get much closer to the current state of the market.

Andie Cartwright

And let's make that easy to picture. Say your team is trying to understand where the adoption rates of new therapies are falling short, or whether outreach is landing in the right places. You're not waiting forever to find out. You're getting a more timely view of what's happening in the field, which lets you adjust.

Anthony Pero

And it's grounded in PointClickCare Life Sciences' position in long-term and post-acute care data. The dataset comes from electronic health records that capture details from patient charts across PCC facilities. We'll talk scale later, but even at a high level, that's why this isn't just another generic commercial feed.

Andie Cartwright

Yeah, it's specialized. That's the important part. This is not "all healthcare, everywhere, all at once." It's focused on long-term care and post-acute care, which is exactly why the insights can be so relevant for teams operating in that space.

Anthony Pero

And because it's focused, the questions it helps answer are focused too: where are patients who may be eligible for therapy, what are the prescription patterns, what are the changes over time, and how can a commercial team respond while the information is still fresh enough to matter?

Andie Cartwright

So that's our setup. The Commercial Dataset is really a way to tap into the pulse of the long-term care market with commercial insights that are timely, practical, and tied to patient need and prescribing behavior. Not abstract data for data's sake.

Anthony Pero

Exactly. And in the next part, we'll get into how teams actually use it day to day, because that's where it becomes very concrete.

Andie Cartwright

Okay, let's get concrete. The data offers two main views: Market Overview and Orders Overview. I like this structure because it separates, sort of, "what does my market look like?", “How many have a diagnosis or what’s happening with a diagnosis?” and "what is actually happening with orders?"

Anthony Pero

That's a good way to put it. The Market Overview is about breaking down your market by healthcare provider, facility, and pharmacy, all within your specific territories. So if you're leading a field team, or supporting one, you can look at the market through the lens that matches how your organization operates.

Andie Cartwright

Which matters, because "national trends" are nice, but they don't tell a rep or a regional leader what to do on Tuesday morning. Territory breakdowns do. Facility breakdowns do. HCP and pharmacy views do.

Anthony Pero

Exactly. And the examples are really practical. One is: where are new residents who are eligible for my therapy? That's a strong use case because it helps teams identify opportunity in the context of the long-term care population, not just broad assumptions.

Andie Cartwright

Another one is competitor territory strength: in which sales territories are my competitors leading? That's one of those questions commercial teams ask all the time, but usually with partial visibility. Here, you're using the market view to understand where you're strong, where you're behind, and where maybe the market is shifting underneath you.

Anthony Pero

And then there's diagnosis trends. What are the current trends in diagnoses within the long-term care population? That can help teams understand whether therapy demand signals are changing over time and region. Not every trend means an immediate action, but it gives context for planning and prioritization.

Andie Cartwright

Yeah, and context is everything. Because otherwise commercial teams can overreact to a local dip or a spike without understanding the broader pattern. Market Overview helps you zoom out and zoom in.

Anthony Pero

Because this is EHR data, the monitoring gets more specific compared to other data sets.

Andie Cartwright

And I love that it explicitly includes HCP data including NPs and PAs. Who are my brand champions and where are they located? That's a very commercial question, but also a very human one. You'reidentifying where support for your brand is strongest, whether that's by geography or by the prescriber and care network patterns around them.

Anthony Pero

Right, and that's useful for scaling success. If you see stronger uptake or persistence in one area, you can ask what is different there. Is it awareness? Is it engagement? Is it the surrounding facility and pharmacy ecosystem? Again, we should be careful not to overstate causation, but the data helps surface where to look.

Andie Cartwright

This also helps teams ask a blunt but necessary question: has my outreach strategy resulted in product switches to my brand? That's the kind of measurement conversation every commercial leader ends up having.

Anthony Pero

Yes, because outreach without measurement is just activity. The value here is that teams can monitor prescribing behavior, see starts and discontinuations, and track trends over time to measure commercial effectiveness. It also helps highlight possible points of failure during the sales cycle, which is important. If awareness is there but starts aren't materializing, or if starts occur and then discontinuations rise, that's a different problem than simple lack of reach.

Andie Cartwright

That's a great point. So this data set gives you both the landscape and the movement: where the opportunity is, who's influencing it, and whether your strategy is changing behavior in the market.

Anthony Pero

So why does all this matter commercially? For me, it starts with scale and relevance. The dataset covers more than 15 million patients aged 65 and older, captures on average 50-plus points per patient day, and spans more than 10 years of data. That's a substantial foundation.

Andie Cartwright

And that last piece matters more than people sometimes realize. Ten-plus years gives you trend depth. Fifty-plus points per patient day gives you richness. And 15 million-plus patients aged 65 and up gives you a sense of market breadth within the long-term care space. Put together, that means the insights aren't coming from some tiny sliver.

Anthony Pero

Exactly. There's also an average length of long stay over 800 days , which underscores that this is a population and care setting where longitudinal understanding is really valuable. You're not only looking at isolated events; you're looking at patterns across time.

Andie Cartwright

And then you pair that scale with the one-week data latency we talked about earlier. That's where it gets commercially interesting. Rich data is great. Fast data is great. Rich and fast together... that's where teams can actually tighten outreach strategy.

Anthony Pero

Right. Because if commercial teams can see emerging shifts within about a week of data acquisition, they have a better chance to respond while the signal is still relevant. Maybe a territory needs attention. Maybe a competitor is leading in a region you thought was stable. Maybe eligible new residents are clustering in places where your team hasn't focused enough. Timeliness changes the usefulness of the insight.

Anthony Pero

Measurement is really the thread running through all of this. You can use the data to assess starts, discontinuations, switches, champion locations, competitor leadership, diagnosis trends, and opportunity among eligible new residents. Those are not random metrics. They connect directly to field execution, market understanding, and strategic planning.

Andie Cartwright

Yeah, it's kind of the difference between saying, "We think our commercial strategy is working," and saying, "Here's where it's working, here's where it isn't, and here's what changed." That's a much stronger position for teams that need to allocate time and budget carefully.

Anthony Pero

And in a market as nuanced as long-term care, better visibility can mean better prioritization. Not just more activity, but smarter activity. Which facilities matter, which territories need support, which prescribers or pharmacies are shaping patterns, and where the commercial story is moving in your favor or against you.

Andie Cartwright

So if we boil it down, the Commercial Dataset helps teams uncover insights across the long-term care market with scale, specificity, and speed. That's really the value proposition.

Anthony Pero

Well said.

Andie Cartwright

Anthony, this was a good one.

Anthony Pero

Always is, Andie. Thanks everyone for listening to Better Living Through Data.

Andie Cartwright

We'll be back with more conversations on how data becomes action. Until then, take care. Bye, Anthony.

Anthony Pero

Bye, Andie.