Doctors 2.0 and Pharma Marketing News is currently running the “Exploring the Doctor 2.0” survey (find it here), which asks respondents about the impact of New Technologies on healthcare, a subject that is right now being discussed by the “Online Health Care Professional Communities” panel at the Doctors 2.0 & You Conference in Paris, France.
I will be reviewing in more details the results of this survey in the upcoming issue of Pharma Marketing News, but will give you a glimpse of the results of the first question, which asked respondents to rate the importance internet tools and services in improving healthcare. The results are shown in the following chart:
Over 80% of respondents (N=54) said that online professional communities were very useful or essential tools for improving healthcare. Close behind that were mobile apps for professionals and patients. The chart shows a comparison between EU (yellow line) and North American (red line) respondents.
However, According to a QuantiaMD and Care Continuum Alliance 4,033-clinician study, 28% of clinicians access online
physician communities. “A notable 92% of physicians are interested in interacting with colleagues in online professional
networks to learn from experts and peers, discuss clinical issues and share practice management challenges. However,
more than 70% of physicians say patient privacy issues would hold them back from using these networks, and two-thirds
are worried about liability issues. Lack of time and issues with compensation are also areas of concern.” Chart:
Note: N=4032 for all responses except physician communities, which only includes respondents with no prior
QuantiaMD connection (N=854). Source: QuantiaResearch www.quantiamd.com
For more about this discrepancy (highly rated importance of physician communities and actual low use of them by physicians) see “Physician Participation in Peer-to-Peer Social Media Sites: Why Is It Less Than Expected?” Use discount code ‘P2Pfree’ to get it free.
