Consumer Internet impact is huge

Meredith Abreu By Patty Enrado, Editor

ORLANDO, Fla. — In the past 12 months, 58 percent of all U.S. adults have sought health information via the Internet, while 99 percent of physicians have been using the Internet for the last two to three years. These numbers reflect the dramatic shift that has been occurring in consumer and physician health information gathering for decision making, according to Meredith Abreu, vice president of research at Manhattan Research.

In her View from the Top education session 150, Physician and Consumer eHealth Trends,” on Thursday, Feb. 28, 9:45 AM - 10:45 AM, Abreu will look at where the market has been moving and how these two groups have been accessing information, using 10 years’ worth of data collected by Manhattan Research.

Online-conference attendance by physicians have increased by approximately 20 percent, while offline-conference attendance has dropped by the same percentage. Certain specialties will continue to command on-site conference attendance, but the Internet has afforded many primary care and emergency medicine physicians the ease of plugging into online conferences to accommodate their busy schedules.

Online networking for physicians has become popular, said Abreu. She noted that Sermo.com is one community network to watch in 2008.

On the consumer side, the big story is the emergence of the empowered, educated consumer, who is becoming more and more involved in healthcare discussions with the physician. Beyond health information search on such sites as WebMD, hospital, physician and medication ratings and message boards are being accessed by consumers.
“There is a lot more transparency for consumers making decisions,” she said.

Using Manhattan Research’s syndicated studies of consumer and physician reports, Abreu will uncover the big picture of how physicians communicate, technology adoption rates and barriers, and the shift in patient/physician dialogue. “People are not aware of where we are now,” she said.