MarketTools Blog

We’ve been hearing more and more about how U.S. patients are taking control of their healthcare.  We also know that patients see and recall pharmaceutical advertising, and in some cases ask their physician about a particular product. In fact, a recent study from Prevention Magazine noted that a majority of consumers feel that pharmaceutical advertising in magazines and on TV is fair and balanced, but they feel that online ads need to work harder to communicate risks vs. benefits.  At the same time, advertising within the social media landscape has quickly become an accepted voice for pharmaceutical companies, with 57% of consumers saying ads are acceptable on sites that cover health and medical issues.  Good to know!

MarketTools ran some market research on research recently with a study of an online survey panel of over 1,200 consumers, and found some further validation of the ways that both general consumers and specific patient groups continue to seek information and tools online related to their healthcare.

• Web MD is considered an important resource by nearly 50% of consumers overall, and by over one-half of consumers with specific diseases.
• Nearly one-half of consumers and patients would consider a doctor’s website a good place to go to learn about their disease.
• Interested consumers also consider offline medical textbooks a good place for learning about diseases.
• Most consumers in this study don’t consider TV, newspapers, pharmacies or quick clinics good places to learn about their disease.  
• Blogs are increasingly becoming a source of advice for patients:  11% of consumers trust a patient blog more than information from a pharmaceutical manufacturer website. That percentage jumps slightly when you look at patients with chronic conditions, such as chronic pain.
• Nearly 11% of consumers and patients interested in information about chronic pain, diabetes and heart disease participate in social networking.  
• And confirming what many in pharma already know: only about a quarter of consumers or patients would consider a pharmaceutical website a good place to learn about their disease.

We’ve long known the Internet is a great tool for massive patient education, and clearly, pharmaceutical marketers are continuing to invest in their online presence including websites and ads.  But it seems like this current research study spotlights a great opportunity for pharmaceutical companies to assist doctors in beefing up their web presence by offering them informational content and giving them opportunities to connect with other medical professionals (such as nurses) who can help educate them about products.  There are additional opportunities for pharma to get involved in the education process and identify new resources for doctors and patients to find trustworthy content.  For example, we anticipate that social media participation around health and medical issues will increase transparency and  communication between patients.  We encourage our pharmaceutical clients to optimize the best combination of online and offline media to result in the greatest reach to their target market.

Coming up soon:  study results about what patients want in terms of online tools and technology to connect with healthcare information, including how they feel about the possibility of online test results and medical records. Stay tuned!