Physicians’ EHR time rose 6.5%: why reaching doctors has become harder

Physicians now spend more time on digital work than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2025 JAMA Internal Medicine study looked at 280,712 ambulatory physicians. It found that primary care physicians’ active EHR time rose 6.5%, from 10.6 to 11.3 hours per week. Medical subspecialists saw a 9.9% increase. The study also found that message volume stayed high after the sharp rise seen during the pandemic. JAMA Internal Medicine research on physician EHR time and messaging

These findings don’t prove that EHR work causes doctors to ignore commercial email. The study focused on clinical systems rather than marketing messages. Still, it shows that physicians deal with a large amount of digital communication. Poor outreach results may come from busy inboxes, weak audience matching, old records, or poor timing. In many cases, several of these factors act at the same time.

Message volume puts pressure on physician attention

Inbox pressure is one direct factor behind limited physician attention. The same JAMA Internal Medicine study found that primary care physicians received about 24 patient calls and 16 patient medical advice requests each week. More messages mean more tasks competing for the same working hours. That doesn’t tell us exactly how commercial email performs, but it explains why attention is limited.

Earlier research gives more context. A study of 1,275 primary care physicians found that they received an average of 332.6 new electronic messages each week. Physicians also switched attention to or from their electronic inbox about 79 times during a workday. These were clinical messages, so they can’t be used as a direct measure of marketing email behavior. They do show why sending more email isn’t always the right response to weak engagement.

Poor audience fit makes the problem worse

Heavy inbox use becomes a bigger issue when outreach reaches the wrong physician. A cardiologist, surgeon, psychiatrist, and family physician may all have medical credentials. Their work, interests, and buying roles can still be very different. A single broad campaign may fail because the message doesn’t fit the recipient.

Audience selection is one factor that marketers can control. A segmented physicians email list can help teams filter contacts by specialty, location, and other useful fields before outreach starts. IInfotanks states that its database includes more than 1.5 million physician contacts worldwide and more than 700,000 US physician records. It also lists more than 35 data fields per record. These are company-reported figures, so they shouldn’t be treated as proof of campaign results.

Physician records change over time

Contact data doesn’t stay accurate forever. Physicians move to new practices, change locations, join different health systems, or stop practicing. Some may also change specialties or professional roles. Each change can make an old contact record less useful.

CMS provides a clear example of how often provider information changes. It publishes monthly full NPI files and weekly update files. These updates include new NPIs, changed records, and deactivated NPIs. The August 2026 monthly Version 2 file was more than 1 GB in size. CMS NPPES downloadable data files

CMS also makes an important distinction. An NPI confirms that a provider has an identifier in the NPPES system. It doesn’t prove that the provider is licensed or fully credentialed. That means teams using a verified physicians email list still need to understand how each field was checked and when it was last updated.

One source may not describe a physician fully

A single database may not contain every fact needed for outreach. Identity, specialty, practice location, and contact details can come from different sources. These fields may also change at different times. Good matching therefore depends on more than finding a name and email address.

The American Medical Association says its Physician Professional Data covers more than 1.5 million physicians, residents, and medical students in the US. That figure includes about 379,000 graduates of foreign medical schools who live in the country. The AMA also says that some education, residency, and certification data goes through primary-source checking before it is added. AMA Physician Professional Data

This helps explain why a physician email list may depend on several data sources. One source may confirm identity, while another gives specialty or practice details. Combining these fields can reduce known errors. It still can’t guarantee that a physician will open or answer a message.

Weak targeting can create a feedback problem

Poor targeting can lead teams to make the wrong change. A broad campaign may produce low engagement. The team may then send more messages or add more contacts. That increases volume without fixing the original audience mismatch.

A better response is to check the audience first. A specialty-based physicians mailing list can help when the campaign depends on a certain clinical field or region. The strongest claim we can make is simple: better segmentation removes clear mismatches. It doesn’t prove that segmentation alone will raise response rates by a fixed amount.

Compliance affects how campaigns are run

Commercial email also has legal rules. These rules apply even when the contact data is accurate. The Federal Trade Commission says CAN-SPAM covers commercial email and sets requirements for sender information, message content, and opt-out handling. FTC CAN-SPAM compliance guide

Compliance doesn’t make a weak message relevant. Accurate contact data doesn’t remove legal duties either. Teams need to treat these as separate parts of the same outreach process. Physician attention, audience fit, data freshness, and lawful campaign setup can all affect what happens after a message is sent.

Recipient fit is the most practical place to act

Marketers have little control over physician workload. They can’t reduce patient messages, clinical tasks, or health-system rules. They can control who receives a campaign.

That makes recipient fit the clearest starting point. Teams can check specialty, location, role, and practice context before they send. They can also remove records that no longer match the campaign. This won’t remove every cause of weak engagement, but it can remove one common source of failure before timing or message wording becomes an issue.

Frequently asked questions

Why are physicians hard to reach by email?

Physicians work in a busy digital setting. Research covering 280,712 ambulatory physicians found that EHR time and message volume stayed above earlier levels after 2020. That supports the idea that physician attention is under pressure. It doesn’t predict how any one doctor will respond to a commercial email.

Does a larger physician database improve campaign results?

A larger database doesn’t guarantee better results. Size says how many records are available, but it says little about whether those records fit the campaign. Specialty, location, role, and data freshness matter as well. Teams should judge database quality separately from database size.

How often can physician information change?

There’s no single update schedule for every data field. CMS publishes monthly NPI files and weekly changes because provider records change throughout the month. Practice locations and affiliations can also change. Email data may need a separate update process.

Is an NPI enough to verify a physician contact?

No. An NPI confirms an identifier in the NPPES system. CMS states that the NPI itself doesn’t prove licensure or credentials. Teams may need other sources to confirm specialty, employment, practice information, or contact details.

What should teams check first when outreach performs poorly?

Start with recipient fit because it can be checked before a campaign is sent. Confirm that the physician’s specialty, role, and practice context match the message. Then review data freshness and campaign setup. This gives teams a clear place to fix problems without assuming that 1 cause explains every weak result.

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