HOW DO DOCTORS SPEND THEIR TIME ONLINE?Dr Tim Ringrose, CEO, M3 EuropeJUNE 2014

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

In this new research on how doctors are spending their time online, we observe how the boundaries between work and leisure use are blurring for all ages, and how independent sources of medical information are preferred over pharma company sponsored ones. We also explain how the pharmaceutical industry should be engaging with doctors digitally to build trust and ensure key product messages are communicated effectively.

01 Introduction

02 How much time do doctors spend online?

03 What are doctors looking for online…and where?

05 What about pharmaceutical product information?

07 Understand online doctors before engaging

CONTENTS

01 How do doctors spend their time online?

“The specific habits of doctors around internet use are continually evolving.”

INTRODUCTION

In our recent research piece, Doctor networks: The rules of engagement for pharma, some overarching principles for online engagement between the pharmaceutical industry and doctors were defined.1

But the specific habits of doctors around internet use are, just like the rest of us, continually evolving. For the

pharmaceutical industry to effectively engage with doctors it is therefore important to keep on top of the latest

trends around how they are using digital channels.

We recently conducted fresh research to address some simple questions around how often doctors are online,

where they like to spend time, what types of information they are broadly looking for and what they are specifically

seeking out with regards to pharmaceutical products. A total of 1,008 UK GPs took part in the omnibus survey,

which was conducted by medeConnect, and their responses are analysed in this essay.

How do doctors spend their time online? 02

Figure 1 illustrates how much time doctors are spending online per week, for both work and leisure use.

Both activities occupy about 10 hours’ time, meaning the average doctor spends

about 20 hours online per week in total. However, we believe these figures to be on

the conservative side due to the collection methodology around recall of time spent -

time online is becoming habitually invisible to most.

In reality, doctors are able to spend time online via many different devices - a typical

day might start by checking emails on their smartphone, before using a work

computer at their surgery, and end with time on a laptop or tablet during the evening.

While it would be easy to assume this picture is more appropriate for younger

doctors, figure 2 illustrates that the time spent online across different age groups is

very consistent, with the 60+ age group actually being the most prevalent surfers for

work purposes, based on this research.

In addition, we suspect that the definitions of ‘work’ and ‘leisure’ time are blurred.

For example, doctors chatting on online forums with their peers about predominantly

non-medical issues may regard this as leisure, in the same way that, in the real

world, an after-hours drink with colleagues would not be regarded as work either.

The net conclusion here: just as with many other areas of business doctors are

spending more and more time online, which reinforces how powerful this medium is

while also limiting pharma’s time for offline engagement.

HOW MUCH TIME DO DOCTORS SPEND ONLINE? 100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%

Work purposes

Base: All respondents (1008 GPs)Q1: In a typical week how many hours do you spend online?

Leisure purposes

Mean score 10.1 9.4

21+ hours

16-20 hours

11-15 hours

6-10 hours

3-5 hours

1-2 hours

15%

33%

30%

5%

10%

6%

11%

27%

39%

9%

5%

8%

Hou

rs s

pent

onl

ine

(% G

Ps)

Figure 1: Doctors spend around 20 hours per week online, spanning work and leisure uses

Work purposes

Hours spent online - by age (% GPs)

Base: In brackets next to each age groupQ2 In a typical week how many hours do you spend online? (segmented by age)

Leisure purposes

0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0

Under 30 (14)

30-39 (392)

40-49 (303)

50-59 (236)

60 or over (63)

11.4

12.4

9.1

9.6

10.9

9.3

9.9

8.9

12.0

9.4

Figure 2: Age is no barrier to doctors surfing

Note: The majority of figures for the tables in this essay have been rounded to the nearest whole number

WHAT ARE DOCTORS LOOKING FOR ONLINE…AND WHERE?

03 How do doctors spend their time online?

Next, we wanted to get an update on the type of information doctors are preferentially seeking out online when it comes to work activities. Figure 3 shows the breakdown of responses when doctors were asked to rank various activities in terms of which were most valuable to them.

Viewing guidelines and CME programmes emerge as the most valuable activities

across the group, with over half of the surveyed doctors individually rating one of

these as their single most valuable activity. Medical news, treatment options and

information about new treatments also emerged as valuable, while activities such as

communications with both colleagues and patients came lower down the list.

When you stop to think about this, the activities which are regarded as most valuable

are essentially the ‘Web 1.0’ activities - searching for online information that doctors

could well have been trying to find online 10 years ago. Is this surprising? Probably

not when you reflect that in our own personal internet use such information gathering

is commonplace, e.g. browsing the latest news, searching train times or reading

reviews about restaurants.

Social activities come out lower on the priority list overall. This does not mean

that doctors do not take part in social networking, but does mirror earlier research

showing that doctors lag behind when it comes to using traditional social media

sites.1 Even within the ‘safe’ platform of Doctors.net.uk, where 41% of the members

are active at least once a day (see figure 4), it can be observed that only around

a third of our members take part in the forum discussions section - the rest are

focussed more on information gathering.

Valuabe service

Valuable online activities - all and most valuable (% GPs)

Most valuable

0% 20% 40% 60%

Viewing guidelines

CME programmes

Viewing medical news

Viewing medical journalnews

Information about newtreatments

Online communicationwith colleagues

Viewing textbooks

Information from medicalconferences

80% 100%

Online communicationwith patients

Other (Please specify)

None of the above

87%

29%

33%

81%

6%

71%

64%

8%

60%

5%

50%

12%

36%

3%

3%

4%

0%

25%

1%

0%

0%

9%

Base: All respondents (1008 GPs)Q3: From the list below, please indicate what online activities or services you �nd valuable for your professional practiceQ3a: From the list below, please select your ^top 2^ ,^top 3^online activities or services that you �nd valuable for your professional practice.

Figure 3: Guidelines and CME drive online interest from doctors

How do doctors spend their time online? 04

When we then explore further, in figure 4, where doctors are looking for information

online a pretty sobering, although familiar, picture is painted for pharma. Doctor

networks, professional and government body websites are browsed on a fairly

frequent basis, but a third of the surveyed doctors stated that they never visited

pharma company websites (and almost half said the same for device company

websites!), with charities faring little better in terms of medical eyeballs.

While a variety of factors are quoted as being behind this, trust is clearly a general

problem for pharma, not helped by transparency campaigns, such as AllTrials,

suggesting the industry presents incomplete medical information, but again there

are some parallels with the world beyond pharma. In the same way that a potential

car buyer might visit the manufacturer’s website for specific product information,

they will also visit independent review websites before making a decision. Pharma

may never address the latter point, but it should be in a good position to provide the

most robust information about its own products to doctors and it is here that trust

becomes a block.

In summary, this data tells us that doctors are primarily seeking information from

independent websites to help them do their day-to-day job better. Can pharma do

more here? Yes, but restoring trust will take time and a change of behaviour.

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%

Docto

rs.n

et.u

k

Gover

nmen

t bod

y

Freq

uenc

y of

usi

ng o

nlin

e re

sour

ces

(% G

Ps)

Profe

ssion

al bod

y

Charit

y

Device

com

pany

Pharm

a com

pany

Other

Never

> once a month

Every month

Every 2 weeks

Every week

Every 2-3 days

At least daily

41%

25%

14%

6%

8%

4%

23%

18%

15%

3%

24%

15%

25%

13%

12%

3%

22%

20%

5%

17%

41%

5%

4%

30%

40%

8%

45%

43%

11%

6%

5%

33%

6%

32%

10%

29%

18%

2%

1%

2%

2%

2%

2%

1%1%

2%

1%1%

Base: All respondents (1008 GPs)Q4: When sourcing information about medical devices, pharmaceutical products and other therapies online, how often do you use websites/online resources operated by the following bodies, organisations and website sponsors?

3%

Figure 4: A third of GPs never visit pharmaceutical company websites

“Trust is clearly a general problem for pharma, not helped by transparency campaigns.”

WHAT ABOUT PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCT INFORMATION?

05 How do doctors spend their time online?

When we look specifically at where doctors go for product information a similar story unfolds, with 85% of doctors stating they strongly agree/agree that they ‘prefer independent sources’, in addition to over half (54%) of them also strongly disagreeing/disagreeing with a rep meeting being preferable to online information sourcing. This is another blow to an ailing sales rep model for pharma.

But again, trust is an underlying factor here – if doctors are not browsing pharma

websites for general information/CME, they are not going to browse them for specific

drug information, nor see reps that they view as biased. However, we think there

is more to it than that and it also hinges on the style of engagement. Independent

sites for product information focus on ensuring they are easy to interact with to allow

doctors to quickly find what they want. There is no reason why pharma could not

do the same, but there tends to be an often subconscious bias towards pushing

the message out rather than letting doctors ‘pull’ out what they really need, which

renders them less user friendly.

The solution here for pharma is to consistently focus first and foremost on what

doctors want, not what it wants them to do. This means providing a fair and

balanced view of appropriate product use, which will build trust. Imagine if a pharma

company presented as equal a focus on where a medicine should not be used as it

did on where it should!

100%1%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%

inter

este

d in re

levan

t

pharm

a pro

ducts

Prefe

r ind

epen

dent

sour

ces

Prefe

r rep

mee

ting

to o

nline

Don’t know

Strongly agree

Agree

Neither disagree nor agree

Disagree

Strongly disagree

11%

55%

23%

7%

7%

14%

23%

30%

24%

45%

40%

11%

1%

1%

1%

1%

3%

Agr

eem

ent

with

sta

tem

ents

(% G

Ps)

Base: All respondents (1008 GPs)Q5: Doctors.net.uk works with pharmaceutical companies to provide doctors with information about products and services that are relevant to their clinical practice. What is your level of agreement/disagreement with the following statements?

Figure 5: Doctors want an independent view on products

This ideal is clearly reinforced when doctors are asked about their preferred formats

for product information, as illustrated in figure 6. Simple guidelines and drug

summaries emerge as preferential formats for doctors, while the detail came out

lower, with 22% of doctors finding a single page detail, and 64% a multiple page

detail, not useful.

Pharma marketers might like to think twice before commissioning their next lengthy

detail. In fact, from speaking with doctors on a regular basis, we know the whole

concept of a detail is slightly alien to them. The word itself conjures up images of

messages being didactically pushed on doctors and online is no different, as many

digital details are little more than electronic versions of the printed detail aid.

Progress is not about changing the word detail, but the fundamental activities behind

the pharma-doctor product discussion. The agenda for doctors is all about having

the most robust information to make the right decisions that are in the best interests

of their patients. As we previously mentioned, if pharma can do this by presenting

much more complete information on where, how and critically where not, to use its

products then it can help doctors achieve that aim. Failing to do this will only mean

that doctors, particularly payers, get this information from other sources (as they

are often doing now), because real-world outcomes focus on assessing these very

aspects.

How do doctors spend their time online? 06

“Imagine if a pharma company presented as equal a focus on where a medicine should not be used.”

Useful

Not useful

100%80%80% 60%60% 40%40% 20%20% 0%

Guideline summaries

Drug summary

Algorithms

Single page detail

Clinical paper summaries

Case reports

Mythbusters

Preferred information formats (% GPs)

Video content

Multiple page detail

77%-4%

-8%

8%

67%

54%

42%

39%

39%

35%

18%

-64%

-48%

-27%

-24%

-27%

-22%

-16%

Base: All respondents (1008 GPs)Q6: When viewing information about pharmaceutical or medical device products, how useful do you �nd the following formats?

Figure 6: Product guidelines / drug summaries are what doctors want

UNDERSTAND ONLINE DOCTORS BEFORE ENGAGING

07 How do doctors spend their time online?

Overall, the results of this recent survey reinforce the perpetual and inescapable influence that the internet is having on the way doctors find relevant drug information, with associated reminders of the key points that pharmaceutical companies must bear in mind with any online (or indeed offline) engagement with doctors, specifically:

Doctors are spending more and more time online, irrespective of age, and the

boundaries between work and leisure use are blurring, which means the industry

must engage with young and old doctors alike online in a ‘natural’ way

Independent websites remain vastly favoured over pharma company sponsored

ones, with trust remaining the key factor. This can only be addressed by

convincing doctors that the bias around pushing particular messages by the

industry has been removed and by providing what they really need

Doctors do not want marketing messages pushed on them around products, but

instead prefer a broader perspective on how and where particular medicines fit

with their patients’ needs, who they are best for and who they are not

The online world has revolutionised the way doctors conduct their practice and it is

only getting more important. To be effective in this digital landscape, pharma must

keep adapting to this change too.

“Independent websites remain vastly favoured over pharma company sponsored ones.”

REFERENCES

1. Doctor networks: The rules of engagement for pharma, pharmaphorum http://www.pharmaphorum.com/white-papers/doctor-networks-the-rules-of-engagement-for-pharma, December 2013

How do doctors spend their time online? 08

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Tim Ringrose, CEO, M3 Europe

Tim Ringrose trained in nephrology and intensive care

in Oxford before joining Doctors.net.uk, part of M3,

in 2000. Tim has led the development of services

provided to doctors and has had considerable

experience working with a wide variety of healthcare

clients to deliver market research, targeted online

communications and educational programmes to

doctors.

About M3 Group

M3 is a trusted global provider of information and

connections in healthcare, and has a reach of more

than 2.5m physicians worldwide - making it the world’s

largest network of physicians.

M3 helps healthcare organisations to access, connect

and communicate more efficiently with physicians

and other healthcare professionals in order to share

knowledge and innovations. It also provides ongoing

data-driven results and insights, so that it can

continually improve its service.

For physicians, M3 provides dedicated and trusted

community spaces in which they can connect with each

other, as well as healthcare organisations - to learn,

access new information, and share knowledge and

experiences.

Through its commitment to progress and its investment

in deepening connections, M3 will continue to

break down the barriers that stand in the way of

improvements and progress in healthcare.

Further information

For more information on M3 and its European Division

which includes www.doctors.net.uk, www.mdlinx.com,

and www.networksinhealth.com

Phone: +44 (0)1235 828400

Email: tim.ringrose@eu.m3.com

Website: http://eu.m3.com/

Twitter: @M3_Europe