Technology adoption trends among European physicians run the gamut, from using the Internet for medical information and clinical support tools to accessing drug reference databases from smartphones, according to a market study by Manhattan Research. "It is now, more than ever, critical for companies to understand how physicians prefer to access information, and update their customer relationship management strategies to reflect these preferences," said Meredith Abreu Ressi, Vice President of Research at Manahttan Research.

The Manhattan Research study provides health and pharmaceutical marketers and site operators with highly useful insights on the role of technology adoption among physicians in Western Europe. Technologies being adopted by these physicians include Web 2.0 technologies; intelligent devices such as the P3/iPod, PDA, and smartphone; online activities such as practice websites, online video, blogs, podcasts and wikis; online media and search engines; and health email newsletters, chat groups, and disease management tools.

"Clients are consistently surprised by the degree to which physicians in Europe are avidly researching clinical information on line, and, in some cases, replacing tried-and-true offline resources with their online counterparts. To remain relevant to this audience, and to provide content and resources that serve their changing needs, companies must stay aware of the key technology adoption metrics and trends influencing the channel preference of today's European physicians," said Ressi.

Additional findings from this Manhattan Research study include:

European Physicians Turn to a Variety of Online Sources for Clinical Support: Physicians in Europe are increasingly turning to the Internet for medical information and clinical support tools. Nearly all physicians in Europe, similar to their U.S. counterparts, access the Internet for professional purposes, with sources such as online textbooks, online journals and eCME becoming increasingly popular.

Mobile Devices Increasingly Essential to European Physicians: Although much of the mobile content market among physicians in the U.S. has been driven by content offerings from companies such as Epocrates and Skyscape, the mobile device and content market in Europe is expanding as well. More than one-third of European physicians report having a PDA or smartphone today, and approximately 20% of those with a PDA or smartphone have used a drug reference database today. Some of the top drug reference databases used by European physicians are from Epocrates, Vidal (in France), IFAP Mobile (in Germany) and Medimecum (in Spain).

Email, SMS Present Viable Opportunities for Communicating with European Physicians: Traditionally, pharmaceutical companies had a limited array of sources available to them to communicate with physicians -- the sales force, dinner meetings, conferences/congresses, and sponsorships. But today’s European physician is media savvy and interested in receiving content from a wide variety of professional information and clinical news sources.

For instance, European physicians are clearly amenable to receiving worthwhile news and information via email. Nearly 80% of European physicians report that they subscribe to some form of medical or professional email newsletters today, with the average physician reporting more than six newsletter subscriptions. Furthermore, given nearly one-third of European physicians report they would prefer to receive updates about new pharmaceutical products and indications via email, newsletters and email content present a unique and low-cost opportunity for targeting European physicians and prescribers today.

Another growing opportunity in Europe is to communicate with physicians via SMS (text) messaging. Nearly half of European physicians report sending or receiving text messages for professional purposes, and over one-fifth report receiving SMS messages from pharma companies or reps. While routine information may not be well-suited to SMS delivery, urgent or time-sensitive information such as event updates, alerts about new products or indications, or meeting reminders could provide a value-added service to the physician.

Electronic Detailing Can Act as a Viable Sales Force Supplement in Certain Markets: While the market for electronic detailing in the U.S. has reached nearly a point of saturation at roughly half of all practicing physicians, the European market is still in an early stage of development and adoption, with only 15% of European physicians participating in electronic detailing over the past year. However, lack of interest is not the driver of low adoption among European physicians, who, in many cases, are not even familiar with electronic detailing as a concept. The main reason for this low adoption is the limited supply of programs currently being offered to physicians in Europe, demonstrating a potentially untapped market for edetailing in Europe.

About this study

Manhattan Research's "Taking the Pulse(R) Europe" is a syndicated multi-client study and advisory service focused on key research topics and trends impacting the European physician marketplace. The study was fielded in Q4 2007 among 1,000 European practicing physicians from the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Italy and France. The survey instrument was presented in the native language of each individual country.

» Story on Analyst Firm Website

» Comments   Digg this    del.icio.us Tweet This