The annual Harris Interactive health survey found that the number of people seeking health information online has remained fairly constant over the past year. As of February 2004, an estimated 111 million adults, or 51% of all adults, have looked for health information on the Internet. This is a slight increase from 109 million in the previous year.

An increasing number of doctors are using emails to communicate with patients. Approximately one quarter of doctors have corresponded with patients via email and many doctors believe email is easier at dealing with the minor questions that patients often have. Since it is evident that this type of communication between patients and doctors will only increase, the question now becomes one of how and if doctors should charge patients for answering emails. Both health insurers and doctors are now experimenting with ways of charging for such interactions.

This research reports on an Internet-based clinical trial for a cold sore remedy, which would have required frequent clinic visits if conducted offline. Overall, recruitment and retention rates were high; however patient compliance was a problem in terms of adherence to schedule and treatment regimen. The author suggests that limitations could be addressed through the use of PDAs as well as patient reminders and incentives.

The number of electronically integrated physicians has grown by 48,000 in 2004, according to Manhattan Research's annual study of practicing U.S. physicians. The study finds several key trends emerging in 2004:

Read the press release.

Manhattan Research recently identified five critical trends driving the future of the ehealth market in 2004:

1. Market of ehealth consumers diversifies -- organizations will need to properly analyze and target the various subsegments
2. Internet a primary health info channel for > 80 million consumers -- online consumers are just as likely to use the Internet as they are their physician in 2004
3. Recall of drug ads flattens, but role of Internet expands -- a growing number of consumers are going directly to the product website after seeing an ad
4. Growth of "connected consumer" segment loses steam -- the link between patient, provider and payee will remain spotty, but stronger link between consumers and their health plans
5. eHealth moves beyond e-patient to e-caregiver -- understanding the impact of those beyond the patient is extremely relevant

A very interesting study by Sliced Bread Design which looks into the differences between how consumers and health experts evaluate the credibility of health sites. The study showed that online consumers and experts diverge greatly in their credibility assessment criteria. Among other conclusions, the study found that "health experts assigned more credibility to health sites that provided information from reputable sources and cited the names and credentials of authors for each article published". The visual appeal of a site's design was far less important to experts than it was to consumers when assessing health site credibility. The top criteria for health experts were:

Based on the study results, the report recommends guidelines for designing credible health sites.

Read abstract and/or download PDF report here.

Highlights from a March 2004 Harris Interactive study on consumer use of online pharmaceutical services:

View article here.

Interesting findings from a Manhattan Research study analyzing consumers who seek pharmaceutical information online:

Read the press release here.

Online pharma marketers should take a study just released by AtlasDMT shows that ad viewers are most likely to convert the first time they see an online ad. This finding suggests that CPM advertisers should put frequency caps in place when the goal is to drive an immediate conversion. Otherwise, ad impressions may get wasted on users who have already seen too many.

FDA regulations stipulate that when advertisers promote a specific drug for a medical condition they must also state any possible side effects associated with that drug. For online advertisers this regulation, called Fair Balance, creates a number of unique problems:

Possible ways to combat Fair Balance issues include:

Full Article on iMediaConnection by Debrianna Obara, i-FRONTIER