Provider affiliations versus platform account and contact relationships
Key Takeaway
To map how healthcare professionals and organizations connect, use Provider Affiliation records. They cover where a professional works, parent organizations, influence and the strength of each tie. Account Contact Relationship and Account Relationship do other jobs.
Agentforce Life Sciences uses the Provider Affiliation object to map how healthcare professionals (HCPs) and healthcare organizations (HCOs) connect. Each affiliation carries healthcare meaning, such as hard or soft ties, influence, primary affiliations and territory alignment. The core platform has two other relationship objects for different jobs. Account Contact Relationship links one contact to several accounts. Account Relationship links two accounts so that one account's records can be shared with an external account.
Which object to use
Provider Affiliation, Account Contact Relationship and Account Relationship all create links between records, but each one serves a different need. Match the object to the need.
If you need to map how HCPs and HCOs connect, such as which organizations an HCP works at, which parent organization an HCO belongs to, which HCPs influence other doctors, or how strong each tie is...
Use Provider Affiliation records that link the related accounts.
If you need to associate one contact with several accounts...
Use Account Contact Relationship.
If you need to share one account's records with an external account...
Use Account Relationship together with account relationship data sharing rules.
A brand team is setting up account data for an oncology launch. Dr. Priya Raman consults for Lakeside Cancer Center. The team wants to rate that tie as Medium strength. Dr. Wei Chen follows Dr. Raman's treatment approach, which is influence rather than a shared workplace. Both connections are between healthcare accounts and carry healthcare meaning, so both become Provider Affiliation records. Later, a distributor partner needs to see records associated with Lakeside Cancer Center. Data sharing is a different need, so it calls for an Account Relationship instead.