A survey finds that 80 percent of U.S. physicians visit Health Care Professional sites. Medscape, which offers free tools and education for doctors, is the most popular site.
U.S.
doctors are increasingly turning to the Web, specifically to Health Care
Professional content sites, for education, professional career advice and
support from other physicians, according to a new report. Medscape.com and
WebMD.com are two of the most popular Websites for doctors.
In
the first quarter of 2010, about 80 percent of doctors in the United States
went online to visit these HCP content sites, according to an Aug. 25 report
conducted by comScore and ImpactRx, a pharmaceutical insights company.
This
study is part of the comScore/ImpactRx Physician Behavioral Measurement
initiative, which aims to track physicians' online and mobile behaviors.
Overall, the report finds that physicians are increasingly turning to the Web
for educational and career development, as well as to connect to other doctors
through social media.
"Physicians
are increasingly turning to digital media as a source of health-related
information to supplement their practice," John Mangano, comScore vice
president of pharmaceutical marketing solutions, wrote in a statement.
HCP
sites also accounted for nearly half of total online time that physicians spent
on health-related sites, the most out of the thirteen categories tracked by
comScore and ImpactRX.
Other
high-ranking site categories included General Health Content, which 75 percent
of doctors visited. Doctors also spent time on Web sites dedicated to professional
associations and pharmaceutical-related content.
Medscape.com,
an HCP site which is also part of the WebMd network, ranked first and reached
57 percent of all physicians, according to the survey's analysis. WebMD.com led
as the top General Health Content site, visited by 20.5 percent, while NIH.gov,
the website of the National Institutes of Health, was the most-visited
Government site, reaching 30.5 percent.
In
the Pharmaceuticals category, Wyeth.com, owned by Pfizer, was the most-visited
site, with 6.3 percent. SERMO.com, a networking site that allows doctors to
connect with one another, was the most popular in the Social Media category,
visited by 21.3 percent.
"The
ability to understand physicians' actual online behavior rather than relying on
recall-based surveys provides a more accurate view of how physicians' utilize
the Internet as a health information resource," according to Mangano. "By
understanding which health-related destinations are frequented by physicians,
brand marketers and advertisers can effectively reach and engage this
influential audience segment."
The
report also looked at how long physicians spent on sites at each category. HCP
garnered nearly half, 48 percent, of the total time that physicians spent on
health-related content. Other categories with strong engagement included Clinic
sites, with 11 percent of total minutes, and Pharma Support, with eight
percent.
Although technology can provide physicians with fast access
to information, it also brings about new frustrations. A
recent study showed that, while nearly all doctors are using smartphones, many
of them have difficulty with timely mobile communication from colleagues.
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