Reaching Physicians Online

Let’s start with a little family history. My dad’s a surgeon, my uncle, an internist. I grew up with computers and the Internet. They did not. Not only were these things foreign because they were raised in another country and grew up in another generation, but as physicians they had no time or interest in them. Now when I say no time, I mean NO time. As a child there were times when I didn’t see my dad for two or three days at a time because he was so busy with patients in the three hospitals where he was on staff. The most important things were in-person patient care, networking with other doctors and spending time with your family, definitely not spending time on a computer, which was still up and coming when I was a kid. But over the past five to ten years, I’ve noticed a change and so have healthcare marketers.

A 2009 study conducted by Manhattan Research showed that 99% of physicians use the Internet and 64% use a smartphone. In addition, a recent report by eMarketer examined the online behavior of physicians and how best to reach them. Physicians have become increasingly heavy online and mobile users, which is consistent with the 2009 study from Manhattan Research. This is particularly true when it comes to weekly online usage for professional services, which has increased from two and a half hours in 2002 to eight hours in 2010.

I realize this sounds pretty paltry when you consider how many hours many of us spend online. But when dealing with physicians this is a huge number. Take into consideration that most physicians do not work a typical 9-5 job nor are they sitting at a desk. They are interacting with patients, usually with a booked office schedule and/or visiting patients in a hospital setting. So, these eight hours are either squeezed into an already busy, and unusually long, workday, or after their typical work hours or in the evenings.

But it’s not just external marketers that are ramping up their efforts to reach physicians, according to HealthLeadersMedia. Internal hospital marketing and public relations departments, like the one at Abington Memorial Hospital in Pennsylvania, where a smartphone application is being developed that will allow physician leaders, all of whom have smartphones, to reach the back office line of a referring physician in just a few clicks. This is just one example of how referral and recruitment strategies are being enhanced with online/digital capabilities.

This new data on physicians and their online behavior opens the door to new strategies for how to reach, historically, one of the most difficult audiences.