In our last blog we talked about which information channels (including non digital) have most influence over physician behaviour and why. As promised we've followed the study that drove that piece with a similar activity targeting patients visiting EPG Health Media's patient portal www.epgpatientdirect.org
To obtain a free copy of the survey results contact us here
The differentiator between this study and the plethora of previous consumer surveys being that we asked consumers not only where they go for health information, but what sources they trust.
The data from the study points to 70% of respondents rating what they find on the web somewhere between 'some trust ' and 'good trust', versus 45% that would say the same about a healthcare professional's advice, that's a pretty shocking comparison, with roughly the same proportion (69%) stating they would look to the internet first and 'automatically' to source information about a treatment they were prescribed, recommended or offered. That's good news for EPG Patient Direct.
Being specialists in healthcare digital communications , we don't have ready access to data relating to secondhand car dealers, but we might guess a similar comparison of behaviour when choosing a car, i.e. more trust in information about car choices found on the internet than let's say similar information given by a car dealer, so the physician might rank about the same as the dealer - at least with this sample group.
Download a free copy of the mini study data here.
It's often quoted (mostly by the financial service industry) that the biggest decisions we take in life relate to moving home (a mortgage), buying a car (a loan) and marriage (both), perhaps our next mini study should centre around comparing how these decisions are taken versus healthcare choices, if you'd like to suggest a topic for a mini consumer or physician survey, contact us .