Do doctors really use the Internet?
pharmafile | October 29, 2003 | Feature | Sales and Marketing |Â Â doctors, internetÂ
Ever since the medical and pharmaceutical web emerged in the mid-90s, technology advocates have assumed that widespread use of the Internet by doctors was only a matter of time.
It was expected that a few fuddy-duddy GPs and their hospital counterparts wouldn't use the web, or technology for that matter, but they would soon retire and be replaced by more forward-thinking younger colleagues who would show their seniors the way.
A recent comment by Dr Simon Eccles, deputy chair of the BMAs Junior Doctors' Committee, that "most consultants are vaguely aware of the thing that looks like a TV on their desk", indicates this still hasnt happened. Differences between junior and senior doctors' IT awareness would appear to be as entrenched as ever, with consultants sticking to the tried-and-tested face-to-face peer group interaction that has served medicine for centuries.
So why has doctors' web use not become more widespread? I would suggest five main reasons and any e-marketer trying to crack the doctor market would do well to assess their impact on their sales strategy pronto.
The human element
Doctors in general and GPs in particular are 'people people'. By definition they work with the ill, miserable or dying and a human need for connection, preferably with healthy people, may explain to senior pharma managers, who think their huge sales forces are anachronistic, why they still have a function.
Surgery clutter
A PC and keyboard take up between a third and a half of the area of the average desk. This leaves less space for other essentials like basic diagnostic equipment, note pads, patients' notes and all the other stuff that doctors depend on.
The PC is gradually shrinking, as flat panel displays become cheaper, laptops become smaller and more affordable and PDAs get more powerful, but until they achieve the size and usability of an A4 notepad, surgery users of PCs will remain firmly in a minority.
Time
A GP's working life is split into 10-minute blocks – the time it takes to see a patient, get information, make a diagnosis, write a prescription and write up the notes. Searching for one thing on the net can also take about 10 minutes unless you are a trained researcher.
As an experiment, I looked up 'side-effects of paracetamol' on Google. This presented me with side effects for children, the manufacturer's fact sheet, an MCA enquiry into hepatic side effects, a rant from an aromatherapist, side effects of interleukin-2 and the description of a remedy for period pains. At that point, since I was looking for an objective and preferably accurate summary, I lost interest, along with the will to live. Pity, because the next page of search results contained a clear and succinct explanation from BUPA.
Lack of user knowledge
There is clearly a vicious circle in operation among users. Doctors don't use the web because it takes too long to find things resulting in rusty knowledge – rusty knowledge, and concern about not finding information, mean that they don't use the web.
There have been various attempts to remedy this, but they inevitably involve placing the doctor in a training session, which eats into time with their patients.
Limitations of the medium
The home page of the British National Formulary's website carries this health warning: "Current internet technology is not sufficiently reliable to deliver information for use in clinically critical situations. Users should not therefore rely on the availability of BNF.org to make individual treatment decisions."
There are various reasons for this, but most of them stem from the fact that information superhighway, like other highways get clogged up at certain times of the day. This is most notable when America comes to work on the east coast and then a few hours later on the west coast and at the beginning and end of the UK's working day. Trying to get vital drug information off the web while New York is checking its email is probably not best practice, to say the least.
Overall, expectations that doctors would adopt the web as a source of information and prime means of communication don't seem to have been fulfilled. At least, not yet. Some of these are for technical reasons surgery clutter and limitations of the medium. But if there is a big enough market for technical fixes then they tend to happen sooner rather than later. The more intractable issues are the human element, time and knowledge, and it would take a braver man than Technophobe to predict those changing any time soon.
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