In 2023, GLP-1 prescriptions in the United States topped 9 million per month. By 2025, that number had grown to more than 15 million. Goldman Sachs has projected that GLP-1 drugs could become a $100 billion annual market by 2030. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the two companies that make the most widely used GLP-1 drugs, have seen their market capitalizations grow by hundreds of billions of dollars.
But the GLP-1 story is not just about weight loss. These drugs are changing the clinical picture for millions of patients in ways that are rippling through cardiology, orthopedics, endocrinology, gastroenterology, bariatrics, and primary care simultaneously. Patients on GLP-1 medications are losing significant amounts of weight, which changes their cardiovascular risk profile, their joint pain levels, their diabetes management needs, and in some cases their eligibility for surgeries they were previously planning to have.
All of that clinical change is creating demand for clinical technology that did not exist before. Patient monitoring platforms for GLP-1 adherence. Metabolic health program management software. Clinical decision support tools that manage GLP-1 drug interactions with the other medications these patients are taking. Weight management program infrastructure for the practices that are building GLP-1 treatment programs from scratch.
The purchasing conversations for all of this technology are happening with administrators and physicians whose titles barely existed three years ago. Metabolic Health Directors. GLP-1 Program Coordinators. Directors of Obesity Medicine. These are the people with budgets and evaluation authority for the clinical technology that the GLP-1 revolution has made necessary. And most physician mailing lists do not have their names.
Most people think of GLP-1 drugs as weight loss medications. That framing is incomplete, and it matters for vendors trying to understand the purchasing landscape.
GLP-1 receptor agonists work by mimicking the effects of a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1, which regulates blood sugar and appetite. They were originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes. The weight loss effect was observed in clinical trials and then confirmed in large-scale real-world use. But the clinical effects of significant weight loss and improved blood sugar control go far beyond the scale and the A1C reading.
Patients who lose 15 to 20 percent of their body weight on GLP-1 medications see dramatic reductions in cardiovascular disease risk. A landmark 2023 clinical trial called SURMOUNT showed that Wegovy reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events by 20 percent in patients who were overweight or obese. Cardiologists are now prescribing and managing GLP-1 therapy in ways that were not part of cardiology practice three years ago.
Orthopedic surgeons are seeing patients who were scheduled for knee replacements lose enough weight on GLP-1 drugs to delay or avoid surgery entirely. The clinical pathway for obesity-related joint replacement has changed. The pre-surgical weight loss protocols that many orthopedic practices have always recommended are now more achievable and more common, which changes patient management and the technology that supports it.
Gastroenterology practices are dealing with a completely new patient population. GLP-1 drugs slow gastric emptying, which has significant effects on patients with certain gastrointestinal conditions and on the pharmacokinetics of other medications these patients take. Managing GLP-1 patients in a gastroenterology context requires clinical decision support tools and patient monitoring capabilities that most gastroenterology practices have not previously needed.
Bariatric surgery programs are in a complicated position. The dramatic effectiveness of GLP-1 drugs at producing weight loss has reduced the pool of patients who meet insurance criteria for bariatric surgery, because many of those patients are now achieving significant weight loss through medication rather than surgery. At the same time, the patients who do proceed to bariatric surgery after failing or discontinuing GLP-1 therapy have a different clinical profile than bariatric surgery patients of five years ago. Bariatric programs are investing in clinical technology that helps them manage both the pre-surgical GLP-1 pathway and the post-surgical monitoring that these patients require.
The Metabolic Health Director is a role that has appeared at health systems and large group practices that have made a strategic commitment to building comprehensive metabolic health programs. These programs integrate GLP-1 medication management with dietary counseling, behavioral health support, and ongoing clinical monitoring into a structured care model. The Metabolic Health Director is responsible for the program infrastructure, which includes the clinical technology platform that manages patient enrollment, treatment tracking, outcome monitoring, and billing.
This role did not exist at scale before the GLP-1 boom made metabolic health a high-revenue service line. Most physician mailing lists do not include it as a contact category, because the physicians who developed these databases were mapping the clinical landscape as it existed before Ozempic became a household name.
Below the Metabolic Health Director level, GLP-1 Program Coordinators and Weight Management Program Directors are the operational purchasing contacts for the day-to-day technology needs of GLP-1 programs. These contacts evaluate the patient monitoring apps, remote monitoring platforms, medication adherence tracking tools, and the clinical communication systems that keep GLP-1 patients engaged and on track between office visits.
Patient adherence is a significant challenge in GLP-1 programs because the medications are expensive, the side effects can be difficult in the early weeks of treatment, and patients who stop taking the medication regain the weight they lost. The technology that supports adherence is a genuine clinical and financial priority for GLP-1 program operators, and the people evaluating it are Program Coordinators and Weight Management Directors, not the specialty physicians who are prescribing the medications.
Obesity medicine has grown from a small subspecialty into a mainstream clinical discipline in a remarkably short period. The American Board of Obesity Medicine, which certifies physicians in the subspecialty, has seen its membership grow rapidly as primary care physicians, endocrinologists, and internists seek formal credentials in a field that is now central to their practice. The Director of Obesity Medicine at a health system or large group practice is a physician-administrator who carries purchasing authority for the clinical technology, patient monitoring platforms, and clinical decision support tools that support the obesity medicine program.
Most physician mailing lists that include obesity medicine contacts have them classified under endocrinology or internal medicine, which means that outreach to obesity medicine directors is mixed in with outreach to hundreds of other physicians in those specialties who may have no connection to GLP-1 program management. A physician mailing list with obesity medicine as a distinct, searchable contact category is a meaningfully more targeted tool for vendors in the GLP-1 technology market.
At health systems that have made metabolic health a strategic service line priority, the Chief Medical Officer and the service line leaders for primary care and endocrinology are the executive sponsors for GLP-1 program technology investments. The revenue potential of a well-managed GLP-1 program -- which can generate significant recurring revenue through medication management visits, monitoring services, and ancillary services like nutritional counseling and behavioral health -- makes this a CFO-visible service line investment that requires CMO-level sponsorship.
Metabolic health program management platforms are the core GLP-1 technology category. These are the systems that manage the full patient journey through a GLP-1 treatment program, from initial assessment and eligibility determination through treatment initiation, ongoing monitoring, and long-term outcome tracking. Several companies have built platforms specifically for GLP-1 program management, and established health IT vendors are adding GLP-1 modules to existing platforms. The evaluation conversations are happening at health systems with GLP-1 program leadership, not at the physician specialty society level.
Remote patient monitoring platforms have become a standard component of GLP-1 program infrastructure. Patients who are taking medications that cause significant physiological changes need monitoring between office visits that goes beyond what a quarterly check-in can provide. Weight tracking, blood pressure monitoring, and the behavioral and symptom data that predicts whether a patient is at risk of discontinuing therapy are all captured through remote monitoring platforms that GLP-1 Program Coordinators evaluate and purchase.
Clinical decision support tools for GLP-1 contraindication management are a growing purchasing category in gastroenterology, nephrology, and cardiology practices where GLP-1 patients have complex medication profiles. The drug interaction risks associated with GLP-1 medications in patients with certain gastrointestinal conditions, kidney disease, or heart conditions require clinical decision support capabilities that most practices have not previously needed. The purchasing conversation for these tools involves both the specialty physician and the clinical informatics leadership -- a buying committee that requires physician mailing lists with both clinical specialty contacts and health IT leadership contacts. This cross-functional buying committee dynamic is similar to what Physician Data's research on the prior authorization crisis documented, where revenue cycle and clinical leadership evaluate technology jointly because the problem spans both domains.
Patient communication and engagement platforms for GLP-1 programs have specific requirements that general patient communication tools do not meet. GLP-1 patients need education about managing side effects, guidance on injection technique, support for the dietary changes that maximize treatment effectiveness, and ongoing motivational engagement that keeps them adherent to a medication regimen that requires indefinite continuation to maintain results. The vendors building patient communication platforms specifically for GLP-1 programs are competing in a market where the purchasing contact is the GLP-1 Program Coordinator or Weight Management Program Director, not the general IT or patient experience leadership. The engagement platform need connects to what K12 Data's research on family engagement technology in K-12 districts has documented -- in both markets, the evidence is clear that ongoing engagement with the people who need support produces dramatically better outcomes, and the technology that delivers that engagement is a genuine clinical and operational investment rather than a marketing expense.
• Add Metabolic Health Director, GLP-1 Program Coordinator, and Weight Management Program Director as distinct contact categories in physician mailing lists. These are not subcategories within endocrinology or internal medicine. They are dedicated program management roles with specific purchasing authority for clinical technology that supports GLP-1 treatment programs.
• Include Obesity Medicine as a searchable specialty in physician contact databases. The American Board of Obesity Medicine has certified thousands of physicians who are now central to GLP-1 program management at their practices. Physician mailing lists with obesity medicine as a distinct specialty classification are delivering targeting precision that standard specialty taxonomies do not provide.
• Map the service line and program structure at health systems. Health systems that have established metabolic health as a named service line, or that have announced GLP-1 program launches in press releases or hospital publications, are the highest-urgency purchasing targets for GLP-1 technology vendors. Healthcare email lists that incorporate service line structure data alongside physician contact information are enabling vendor targeting at the organizational level that matters most.
• Include the CMO and service line leadership alongside the program coordinator contacts. GLP-1 program technology investments at health systems require both the operational program contact for evaluation and the CMO or service line leader for executive sponsorship and budget approval. Physician mailing lists that provide both levels of the buying committee are delivering full purchasing authority coverage.
• Segment by GLP-1 prescription volume and program development stage. Practices and health systems with the highest GLP-1 prescription volumes are the most advanced in program development and the most active in technology evaluation. Healthcare contact databases that incorporate prescription data or program development stage data are identifying the highest-urgency purchasing targets in the GLP-1 technology market.
The workforce dimension of the GLP-1 boom creates connections to the K-12 and higher education markets that most healthcare vendors have not mapped. School districts are grappling with student obesity rates that make GLP-1 drugs a growing topic in school health policy discussions, and the school nurse and student health contacts in school district email lists from K12 Data are beginning to encounter GLP-1 questions from students and families. The college and university student health center market is seeing similar demand, with student health directors at institutions covered by college mailing lists from College Data beginning to evaluate GLP-1 treatment support resources for their student populations. Healthcare vendors with physician mailing lists alongside school and college contact data have a genuine cross-sector opportunity in the GLP-1 market.
The government healthcare dimension of the GLP-1 boom is significant. Medicaid programs in multiple states have added GLP-1 coverage for obesity treatment, and the administrative technology that manages Medicaid GLP-1 coverage determinations, prior authorization, and outcome tracking is a government healthcare technology purchasing category that connects physician mailing lists to the government contact databases in Civic Data's civic mailing lists. State Medicaid Medical Directors and pharmacy benefit management officials are purchasing GLP-1 coverage technology that spans healthcare and government purchasing simultaneously.
The GLP-1 revolution is one of those moments in medicine where a genuinely new treatment changes what is clinically possible for millions of patients. Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound are not another generation of incrementally better diabetes medications. They are drugs that are reshaping patient populations across multiple specialties and creating clinical infrastructure needs that the healthcare system is still catching up to.
The technology purchasing that this revolution has triggered is real, ongoing, and growing. But the people doing the buying have titles that most physician mailing lists and healthcare email lists were not designed to find. Metabolic Health Directors, GLP-1 Program Coordinators, and Directors of Obesity Medicine are making decisions about clinical platform investments that their organizations were not making three years ago. The vendors who find them will compete in a market that others do not even know exists.
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