-By Steve McClellan

NEW YORK Healthcare publisher Wolters Kluwer Health and the Nielsen Co. have formed a new venture dubbed the Healthcare Consumer Informatics Alliance. The goal is to provide healthcare marketers and media companies with new combinations of data designed to sharpen their understanding of consumer behavior and attitudes, and to help them craft more effective media plans, marketing messages and sales techniques.

The first data stream being offered is called HealthScape, which combines Nielsen Homescan and Scantrack purchasing and behavioral data for over-the-counter remedies and related consumer goods with WKH's database that tracks prescription drug sales.

"The healthcare industry is confronted with tough questions on how to efficiently target and influence patients and shoppers with limited marketing dollars," said Matt Dumas, managing director of NielsenHealth, in a statement. "This alliance provides a consumer-centric view of the patient and the marketplace with metrics that bring a new kind of accountability to healthcare marketing."

The two companies said they would package additional data streams that tie Nielsen's TV and online ratings data to patient drug purchase information supplied by WKH. The partners stressed that the data for sale would not reveal the identities of individual patients.

David Martin, vp, sales and marketing at WKH, said the data combinations offered by the venture would  "provide an understanding of not only what patient purchasing patterns are, but what is driving those patterns. This information is critical for the industry to better develop and deliver appropriate product messages."

Adweek is a unit of Nielsen Business Media, a division of the Nielsen Co.