Beta - Updated Regularly: This feature is actively evolving, and so is this article. We'll continue updating it throughout Beta as new functionality is added and things change. Check back often for the latest.
Overview
Territory Optimization is an AI Agent chat built into the Territories module in MedScout. It can create and optimize your territories using MedScout data and any additional data you provide.
It’s one tool that can help with any stage of your territory planning:
Standing up new territories
Keeping existing territories balanced as the market or business changes
Completely rethinking and rebuilding your territory model
You can describe what you need in plain language, and it handles the mapping, balancing, and math. If a result comes back almost right, you can tell it what to change, and it will show you the impact before you commit.
Example prompts to begin:
Current rep locations: "I have a list of 15 reps with their locations — can you build territories around them for the Northeast?"
Code-set driven: "I want to optimize territories based on my spine surgery procedure codes across Texas and Florida. We have 8 reps to cover the area."
Custom data: "I'm uploading a file with revenue data by NPI. Can you use that to balance territories across the South?"
Refinement / rebuild: "Our current territories are unbalanced — can you re-optimize them for the West Coast using patient volume and provider count, split into 12 territories?"
Video Walkthrough
Getting access
Territory Optimization is in Beta and will be available to all customers soon.
Where you can use it
Within the Territories module in the MedScout web platform.
How it works
You can configure and run optimizations that divide a geography into balanced territories. That includes the ability to balance across multiple metrics at once: claims volume, patient volume, and provider or site count.
Geography granularity you can use:
Zip code
County
State
Country
Census regions and divisions
US territories
Using drive time
Volume and count metrics alone may not account for how practical a territory is to drive. A territory can look compact and balanced on a map and still be a rough assignment in practice.
You can set a drive-time limit, i.e. no area more than 2 hours from a rep's home location, and the optimizer keeps territories inside that limit. It will also still keep your territories balanced on claims, patient, and provider volume at the same time.
You can use the Rep-seed file below as a template if you don’t already have one.
Here's a video walkthrough of using drive time.
Getting started
Choose a geography: Name states, regions, or however you prefer to create your territory map. The agent will confirm the scope and create a preview.
Choose a data source: Pick a foundation: a strategy, or one or more code sets. You can upload your own data here as well.
Choose metrics to balance: [x y z metrics] and it defaults to all available metrics at equal weighting. You can narrow this down or update the weighting as needed.
Set granularity: Defaults to the county level. You can use state if you’re using the whole country as your geography, and ZIP is the most precise (but may take longer in a large geography).
Set territory count: Your rep headcount and manageable territory size. This will be fixed to rep count if you upload a rep-seed file,
Validate and confirm: The agent runs a validation check and presents a summary. Nothing executes until you confirm.
Run: The optimization will run in the background, so you can leave the screen you’re on. You'll be notified when it's done.
Review and refine: You can move, split, merge, rebalance, or compare against a prior run. Every refinement creates a new version, nothing is overwritten and any version can be undone. You can also chat with the agent to ask about balance scores and breakdowns.
Save: The agent suggests territory names, shows assignable users, and saves the full list in one move after you confirm.
Upload your own files (optional)
Rep-seed datasets (ZIP, lat/lng, or geographic ID) anchor each territory to a starting point, and rep count sets the number of territories.
You are not required to use this template, but it is here if you need a starting point:
Metric datasets are a CSV of custom numeric values that become additional balance dimensions.
You are not required to use this template, but it is here if you need a starting point:
Refining the optimization result
After it completes you can
Move specific counties, ZIPs, or states between territories
Split a territory into multiple, balanced territories
Merge two or more territories into one
Rebalance the full map while holding your manual updates in place
Preview a move or merge before committing it
Undo to any prior version, with full version history
Ask what changed between any two versions
Analyze and compare
You can also ask questions about the output and compare versions visually on the map. Some examples:
Which territory has the most, or fewest, claims, patients, or providers?
Is any territory way bigger or smaller than the rest?
How evenly is patient volume spread across all the territories?
Out of claims, patients, and providers, which one is hardest to even out across this geography?
Which came out more balanced, the 8-territory version or the 10-territory version?
What actually changed in the numbers between version 2 and version 4?
When I moved those counties between territories, did it make things more or less even overall?
Save and assign
Save new or optimized territories with names and user assignments straight to your company's territory list, view current territories and their assignments, and assign territories to any user you have permission to manage.
FAQs
Can I use a strategy and code sets together?
No. Pick exactly one foundation per job. A custom metric dataset can layer on top of either.
What metrics can it balance on?
The numbers the optimizer is trying to even out across territories: claims volume, patient volume, provider or site count.
Can I plan more than one geography in the same thread?
Start one thread per geography. Geography locks after your first successful run, so if you want to plan the Southeast and then the Midwest, those are two threads.
What if the result is almost right?
Refine, don't re-run. A result that's 90% right is a few moves away from being 100% right. Tell the assistant what to change instead of reconfiguring from scratch.
How do I know if the result is good?
Ask it to explain the result before you save. The balance score tells you how good the split is, the per-territory breakdown tells you where the problem is, and the metric distribution tells you how bad the spread is.
What is a balance score?
A single number for how evenly a metric or metrics are spread across territories. Lower is better, and 0 would mean perfectly equal territories. Balancing multiple metrics at once adds their scores together, so totals above 1.0 are normal. Comparing two setups, the lower score is more balanced.
What is a per-territory breakdown?
The actual numbers for each territory side by side. This is where you'd spot a specific problem territory, like one with way more volume or way fewer providers than the rest.
Can I undo a change?
Yes, to any prior refinement version. Full version history is kept, though the original result can't be deleted.
Can I cancel a job that's running?
No. Let it finish and then refine or re-run.
Can other people in my org or MedScout see my chats?
No. Threads are unique to your individual MedScout login.
What data does it have access to?
Only what you have access to. Your MedScout permissions and territory access carry over, so it won't return data outside your territory and it can't do something you couldn't do yourself in the platform today.
Is it available in Scout AI or the MedScout MCP?
Not yet. Territory Optimization lives in the Territories module.
Limitations
Area | Limitation |
Street addresses | Not supported in uploads. Use ZIP, lat/long, or a geographic ID such as county FIPS. |
Refinement granularity | You can't change granularity within an optimization, i.e. a county in a ZIP-level optimization. |
Rep-seed territories | Rep-seeded territory units can't be moved to another territory, and two rep-seeded territories can't be merged. |
Geographic scope | US only: states, territories, Census regions and divisions, and the full country. |