As health system margins remain tight and executive teams scrutinize every investment, marketing is under increasing pressure to prove its financial value. At UChicago Medicine, that scrutiny has reshaped how marketing operates, borrowing concepts more commonly associated with finance, analytics and even clinical research.
Andrew Chang, chief marketing officer of UChicago Medicine, said the organization has taken an aggressive approach to digital transformation, not as a branding exercise, but as a way to directly influence access, growth and revenue.
“We had a pretty big aggressive journey here as many healthcare systems have talked about by with digital transformation, but in the case of UChicago Medicine, what we mean is really utilizing the latest in tools and AI and in tech stacks and in automation to really make sure that we are focused heavily on achieving our goals and our mission,” he said
That shift has fundamentally changed how the system measures marketing success. Rather than relying on engagement metrics or campaign reach, UChicago Medicine now evaluates marketing the same way it would a clinical trial: with controls, validation and financial attribution.
A cornerstone of the strategy has been standing up Salesforce as an engagement technology stack, integrated with Epic, to capture patient interactions across channels and tie them to real outcomes. Mr. Chang and his team dynamically create content and serve messages relevant to the patient as a result.
The focus is not broad messaging, but targeted outreach tied to specific clinical needs, such as preventive screenings or overdue care. That precision has translated into measurable returns.
“Through that targeted strategy, we’re able to deliver messages or experiences that the patient may need to hear,” he said, adding that the system has seen “a significant triple-digit ROI lift.”
But the real differentiator is how those results are validated. UChicago Medicine uses control groups to isolate the true impact of marketing campaigns, a discipline that many organizations discuss but few execute consistently.
“The first step is to set up the foundation for it,” Mr. Chang said. “The foundation that we use is to have roughly 10% of the audience that receives the campaign depending on the campaign size.”
From there, the team tracks:
- appointments booked
- patient no-shows
- the revenue attributed to visits
- downstream impact.
The results are then compared directly to the control group and the executive team assesses whether there were improved outcomes. Finance is embedded in the process to ensure credibility at the executive level.
“Our finance partners have been amazing partners, actually working hand in hand with us to make sure that our methodology is sound so that we can report this out and share this out with the rest of the organization,” said Mr. Chang.
Not every campaign succeeds and that transparency is intentional. The marketing team willingly shares positive or negative results with anyone in the system. The open environment helps drive learnings from all efforts.
“Treat it almost like a clinical trial,” said Mr. Chang. “Figure out what worked, what didn’t work, why didn’t it work, and how do we apply that to other other campaigns and other learnings as well.”
In some cases, the results have been substantial.
“We’ve generated over $5 million in incremental appointments,” Mr. Chang said.
For UChicago Medicine’s leadership team, this approach has reframed marketing from a discretionary expense into a growth investment with clear accountability.
“We’re actually really focused on what marketing delivered from an ROI standpoint and report back out on that to the organization to really justify the fact that marketing is an investment and an area of growth, not just a cost center,” Mr. Chang said.
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