A New Survey Yields Surprising Results
Some of us here refer to 2010 as “The Year of Mobile-ness.” We know a fair amount about how consumers and patients are using mobile devices both in general and relating to certain conditions. On the physician side, however, beyond the basic information of how many of them are using mobile and for what standard functions they’re using it, there’s not much research on how they’re really engaging with mobile devices for professional purposes.
This gap in understanding prompted us to conduct an extensive study on how a variety of physician specialties are using mobile to engage with professional/health sites, pharmaceutical/health corporate sites, Brand.coms and with patients during consultations. The results yielded some interesting insights. I’ll share a few highlights on what was uncovered:
Surprising Physician Mobile Trends:
The first thing we uncovered is that physician mobile use is on the rise during 2010.
• 73% of physicians surveyed will increase their mobile use time by 1–4 hours per week
Professionals are texting each other more than we thought.
• 81% of professionals surveyed have sent a text to a colleague
Even more surprising, is how many physicians are texting sales reps.
• Nearly 1/3 of professionals have corresponded via SMS with a sales rep
Physician site preferences proved interesting across various types (overall, corporate and brand).
• Top professional sites accessed via mobile device:
• 31% ePocrates
• 14% Medscape
• 9% Up to Date
One of many key opportunities discovered is that physicians are increasing their augmentation of patient consultations with the use of mobile devices.
• 48% of professionals surveyed say they use their mobile device at least once per day with patients
• 37% of professionals surveyed use a mobile application with a patient at least once per week
Ultimately, we found that “The Year of Mobile-ness” is going strong for professionals and will only continue to get stronger as more companies optimize their corporate and brand Web sites for mobile, facilitate communication through mobile devices, and build useful apps to augment patient care and treatment research.
For more insight into how physicians are utilizing mobile and how mobile might fit into your brand/product strategy, please contact me for more information at megaera.harris@cadient.com.