Canadian physicians have increased the use of clinical and pharmaceutical information: Study

Essential Physician V.2.0: An ongoing study of the mix of communications sources frequently used and most relevant to Canadian Primary Care Physicians

New results from the Essential Physician Version 2.0 study indicate primary care physicians are changing the way they access and use clinical and pharmaceutical information. Physicians increasingly access online resources for relevant information they need on demand, even during and between patient visits. This suggests that pharmaceutical and healthcare marketers should re-evaluate their communications mix to ensure it includes the relevant information sources that physicians access most frequently.

"10 of the 14 highest reach/highest relevance information sources are online sources," stated researchers at Essential Research Inc. "The huge advantage with online sources is that physicians can access this information on-demand and just-in-time." For example, 61% of physicians are accessing the Internet during patient consults and 77% between patient consults. Physicians indicate the information they've accessed has been helpful in providing better patient counselling, in confirming a diagnosis or treatment and in reducing drug interactions.

The 2010 results also demonstrate that primary care physicians have significantly increased the time they spend online for professional purpose from 37% (of total time spent online) in 2008 to 47% in 2010.

Clearly, the online channel provides tremendous opportunities to engage physicians. However, the researchers caution healthcare marketers to do their homework and understand the eLandscape to ensure that their mix of online communication sources and messages is relevant to the physician's practice, as relevance is a key determinant of usage in this increasingly fragmented communications environment.