Technology's influence in the healthcare industry

Written by Jo Elynn Cook, Director of Marketing, eHealthcare Solutions Premium Advertising Network

It’s remarkable how digital technology has infiltrated today's society and the healthcare marketplace is experiencing digital’s amazing impact every day.

As health consumers become more tech savvy and digitally connected, similarly physicians are doing the same.

Physicians on the web

As is common for nearly everyone who uses the internet, search engines are the top online resource used by physicians.

The top specialty-specific websites visited by primary care physicians include the American Academy of Family Physicians (#1) and American Board of Internal Medicine (#2) for PCPs and the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (#2) for allergists.

The top professional reasons physicians go online are to firstly, search for information about prescription drugs and secondly, use evidence-based treatment guidelines.

Physicians on mobile

Of physicians who report using the internet during the workday, 39 percent do so during patient consults; most frequently for accessing drug reference databases.

The most common professional uses throughout the day are similar to most consumers-at-large: email, internet searches, text messaging, visiting websites and using mobile apps.

Physicians and their patients

Only 5 percent of surveyed physicians said that none of their patients bring information from the Internet to their appointments; the other 95 percent regularly experience the phenomenon.

Further, 77 percent report that they refer their patients to online resources and websites. And the third professional reason physicians are online is to search for patient education materials.

Health consumers on the web

Many consumers turn to the internet as their first source for medical information, reportedly 66 percent in one study.

However, it is still healthcare professionals who are most influential in helping them make decisions about general health and drug information.

These are just some of the ways our industry is embracing this exciting new world. The rapid evolution of digital technologies is changing the face of healthcare at a somewhat exhaustingly fast pace; what is new today will be old tomorrow and what replaces it will be light-years better than the previous option.

I don’t know exactly what’s next, but everyday I’m looking forward to it. It’s my job to quickly implement new solutions to make the most of every available digital technology. So, join me. Let’s strap ourselves in and see where we go from here.

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