UTILIZING REAL-TIME DATA TO MARKET PHYSICAL THERAPY SERVICES TO CLINICIANS WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION'S EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT. David L. Omura* Rehab Services, Shands Heathcare, Gainesville, FL UNIQUE: Technology application developed to provide real-time data to administration and clinical staff allows users to ascertain valuable information on the organization's external environment via queries of the database, in a rapid and concise format. Typical queries involving hundreds of pages of data can be answered within a 40 second time period. PURPOSE: The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate how a technology application developed at Shands Hospital at the University of Florida is able to provide the objective, real-time data required to develop effective marketing strategies. FOUNDATION: As with all service organizations, a thorough understanding of the internal and external market is necessary to be successful. Many organizations have a fairly good understanding of who they are (internal environment). However, many do not know enough about their position in their market (external environment). Rehabilitation organizations, regardless of size, need to spend more time learning about their external environment if they hope to remain competitive. DESCRIPTION: The ability to market physical therapy services effectively is attained through data analysis of three main components that comprise the external environment: 1. Demographic, economic, and health status trends; 2. Competition; 3. Market forecasting. Utilization of this data allows time to be spent more effectively marketing to clinicians in an organization's external environment. OBSERVATIONS: Realizing that past market data loses its worth fairly quickly, the real-time data that our information technology offers is very valuable. Clinician profiles, individual clinic patient mix, and referring specialist practice patterns are simply tracked. On any given day, week, or month, information is readily available. This allows marketing to be more of a scientific activity versus a casual practice based on instincts. The availability of data from each of these three areas provides the ability to not only have a thorough understanding of where your organization is positioned currently, but also to be able to forecast the future position of the organization. CONCLUSIONS: Organizations that are interested in staying competitive within their rehabilitation market need to consider designating time to market physical therapy services to clinicians within their community. This marketing can be very effective and efficient if individuals utilize real-time objective data to make informed, sound decisions. By taking time to incorporate rehab-specific software into an organization's marketing efforts, rehabilitation professionals will be much more successful in future endeavors. Only by staying abreast of the public's needs, and by finding ways to meet these needs, will an organization continue to thrive within its external environment. With this valuable data readily accessible, an organization has the ability to stay ahead of the curve. FUNDING SOURCE: None KEYWORDS: marketing, strategies, external, environment Copyright 2009 by the American Physical Therapy Association. Requests for reprints should be directed to the corresponding author of the article. Educators, students, and other academic customers may receive permission to reprint copyrighted material from Physical Therapy (ISSN 1538-6724) by contacting the Copyright Clearance Center Inc, 222 Rosewood Dr, Danvers, MA 01923. Other types of customers who want permission to reprint should contact the APTA Editorial Office, Attn: Physical Therapy.