Telemedicine
European Consumers Seeking Health and Pharmaceutical Information
European Consumers Seeking Health and Pharmaceutical Information
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By eHealth Network - 17 October 2007
Consumers in Europe are renowned for being extremely technologically advanced in terms of online activities and technology and device ownership. But due to the lack of direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals, many pharmaceutical companies have assumed that consumers were somewhat passive participants in the patientphysician relationship. However, according to a recent study by Manhattan Research, European consumers are more likely to have researched health information online than they are to have participated in online dating, online gaming or even online bill pay. Given the propensity of European consumers to use the Internet for health and pharmaceutical information, Manhattan Research has outlined key trends in the market that every health and pharmaceutical market must be aware of and plan for today. The Internet now clearly rivals “traditional” mass media as a health information resource. Furthermore, in the absence of direct-to-consumer advertising, or local product.com destinations for European consumers, consumers are actually going to the corporate sites of pharmaceutical companies for health and pharmaceutical information. In fact, an estimated 21 million consumers report visiting corporate sites in the past 12 months across the 10 countries surveyed in the research. Pfizer, Bayer and GSK are the top three corporate sites visited by consumers for information, with such visitors reporting to access these sites for health and treatment information specifically. Also it is not just pharmaceutical information European consumers are after today. Consumers are also researching a wide range of diseases online. Consumers are actively seeking information about depression and targeted topics such as cancer, which has a relatively low population of patients compared to the population seeking information online.
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