Wow — I can’t believe it’s been 10 days since my last blog post… Between work in general, prepping for my talk, attending Digital Pharma 2008 most of last week, and just not feeling 100% lately, it’s been a challenge to get anything posted. Sorry!

I should mention that the conference was great and my talk was pleasantly well-received (phew!), so I will definitely be posting my thoughts/reflections on the conference soon. If you can’t wait , read Steve Woodruff’s blog — he was live-blogging and live-twittering the event.

Anyway, in the spirit of catching up, I thought I’d post a few news releases from the last couple of weeks, starting with some very interesting data from Manhattan Research:

1. Internet Surpasses Doctors as the Top Source of Health Information
- This is very interesting news from OCT 9th, that suggests a real tipping point in consumer behavior, with regards to the usage of the internet as a health resource. Here’s a quote from Meredith Abreu-Ressi (VP, Research): “As healthcare coverage — and even routine visits to the doctor — becomes less affordable to many Americans, the Internet has emerged as a first line of defense for consumers seeking to manage their healthcare independently“.

2. Online European Consumers Turn to Search Engines and Wikipedia for Health Information
- So, in a similar fashion to American consumers (above), the Europeans are turning to online resources for health information as well. Here’s a quote from the news release: The majority of adults online in Europe used search engines to look up health information in the past 12 months, and many report that they turn to a search engine first over going directly to a health site when beginning their quest for information. The collaborative online encyclopedia Wikipedia ranks as a top site used for health in most of the countries surveyed…

3. Over 145 Million Consumers Online for Health
- According to the Manattan Research CyberCitizen Health v8.0 survey, over 145 million US adults are now using the internet to survey health information. This is up from 132 million in 2007 and 116 million in 2006. Here’s what Mark Bard (President, Manhattan Research) had to say: “With over 145 million consumers online for health, new media offers cost-effective ways to reach and engage target audiences. In order to efficiently allocate budgets, companies must understand the rapidly evolving health media channels and how consumers are using them to complement and replace the traditional offline health system“.

4. Top Condition Groups Shifting Their TV Viewing Online
- And finally, as broadband ubiquity and online video access continues to grow, I guess it should be no surprise that more US adults from the top condition groups are shifting their TV viewing to online channels (pun intended). Here’s a quote from Meredith “With television networks partnering with video-sharing websites like YouTube and Hulu and DVR adoption increasing, one thing is clear – when it comes to media, the consumer is in control. For healthcare and pharmaceutical marketers, it’s critical to understand how adoption rates and media mix differ by disease group…“.

As you can see, there’s a big shift happening right now to the internet for health-related information. In particular, online video channels are by far the largest growing media channel online for both consumers and physicians. However, as the industry continues to take small steps towards the adoption of many of these online resources (for obvious reasons), it’ll be interesting to see how things develop.

BTW, if you’re interested in eHealth and ePharma information, Manhattan Research has a great podcast series called eHealth Trends. Each episode is usually less than 10 mins long and provides updates on the latest trends (as implied), such as Physician Social Networks, The Future of Personal Health Records, and Facebook for Physicians.

NOTE: I am in no way affiliated with Manhattan Research — just a big fan of their research data.