Doctors are spending more time online, with more of theirInternet activities devoted to professional endeavors, according to the resultsof a new survey conducted by the MD Net Guide and Oncology Net Guide series ofjournals.
Fully 50% of survey participants reported spending at leasteight hours a week online; less than 10% spend two hours or less using theInternet.
Other survey results included:
- About 60% of respondents spend at least two-fifths of their time online working on professional activities.
- 38% of all respondents, and nearly half of those in private practice, reported having a practice Web site.
- 88% of participants considered the Internet an important source of specialty-specific information, while 47% considered it to be very important.
- The most common online searches were for clinical information (reported by 85% of respondents), online CME (70%) and drug information (68%); only 30% of physicians reported using the Internet to search for health IT information.
- Whereas 70% of respondents participate in online CME, physicians still prefer other sources of education—58% of respondents earn less than 20% of their total credits online, and only 14% earn more that 60% of CME credits this way.
- One in five respondents did not own a PDA or handheld computer, and only 31% of physicians reported using their handheld to access the Web.
- Surprisingly, 70% of respondents spend less than two hours a week “writing and sending e-mails to patients, colleagues, insurance companies, etc.”
From the June 01, 2006 Issue of MM+M - Medical Marketing and Media
