Senior Digital Healthcare Analyst James Avallone discusses physician adoption, behaviors, barriers, and opportunities related to user-generated content and professional online communities

September 20, 2010, New York, NY – Pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research releases a new report providing in-depth data and analysis to help healthcare marketers, agencies, and publishers assess the physician social media landscape. The report found that the majority of U.S. physicians are using professional user-generated content in some form, primarily on blogs, open message boards, and other online media. In contrast, less than 20 percent of U.S. physicians have visited closed professional online communities despite high interest in these types of forums, representing a challenge for marketers seeking to leverage social media as an engagement tool. “Physician Social Media: Benchmarking Adoption and Assessing Strategic Opportunities” provides a framework for pharma companies to approach physician social media, discusses why traction of professional communities remains low, and explores challenges and opportunities for harnessing physician use of social media content.    

“Framing the social media landscape is a critical first step in understanding the growing audience of physicians interacting with one another online,” said James Avallone, Senior Digital Healthcare Analyst at Manhattan Research. “Since physicians’ primary consumption of professional social media is happening outside the walls of existing closed physician-only communities, marketers need to evaluate other engagement opportunities, such as distributed content or niche communities."

“Physician Social Media: Benchmarking Adoption and Assessing Strategic Opportunities” draws from Manhattan Research’s Taking the Pulse® v10.0 study conducted in Q1 2010 via online and offline survey methodology among 2,033 U.S. practicing physicians.

For more information about the report and its table of contents, please visit http://www.manhattanresearch.com/physician-social-media, email sales@manhattanresearch.com, or call 1.888.680.0800, ext 2.

About Manhattan Research Reports
Manhattan Research, a Decision Resources, Inc. company, is a leading market research and advisory services firm for global pharmaceutical and healthcare companies. For more information, please visit http://www.manhattanresearch.com/reports.