Why do people go online for health information ?

Let’s play detective.  Facts: According to recent research from Gallup;  In U.S., More Than 8 in 10 Rate Nurses, Doctors Highly, in addition 70% of patients believe what their doctors tell them and don’t get a second opinion.  However we also know, according to Manhattan Research, that more people are going online for health information.  So what theories can we devise from these facts ?

(1) People are going online for health information to decide if they need to go see their doctors.  Supporting evidence: Less people going to the doctor according to the Wall Street Journal.  This could mean more patients are self-diagnosing.  Why are less people going to see their HCP’s ?  Because of higher co-pays and deductible’s.

(2) Caregivers are going online to help educate themselves on health problems for someone in their care.  In 19 days the first Baby Boomers will turn 65.  As they age they are could be dealing with aging parents and the deterioration of their health.  People are learning that the stress of caring for someone who sick and may need more attention is very stressful.  The Internet may help to reduce that stress by educating people on health conditions, medications and resources for support.

(3) Is the cure worse than the health problem ? Everyday it seems we read stories about medications in the media.  Studies say “they are good” while other studies “say they are bad”.  What is patients supposed to think ?  According to Manhattan Research a big percentage of patients go to pharma product websites after receiving an Rx and from personal experience I know that one of the top pages within those web sites is “safety information”.  For patients it’s about “wellness”.  This means quality over medications that could have nasty side effects.

(4) How do I live with...  People who have chronic health conditions may want to hear from others on how they manage to live with their disease.  One of the strongest online communities that I have found is Type 1 diabetics.  They support each other in ways that are quite remarkable.  The same can be said for some types of cancer.  The attitude is “OK, I have this disease. How can I live a normal quality of life and what have you done in the past?”  This is one reason why there are so many social media health sites springing up everywhere.

(5) I want to save money. It is quickly becoming more popular and some brands, like Lunesta, are offering $0 co-pay.  There are also a lot of tools on the Web to compare drug prices from different retail pharmacies.  Today’s consumers like to save money, it is the new trend that is fun to do.

So when you add all this up what does it mean ?  It means there are some great opportunities for pharma marketers but they have to stop thinking like marketers and start thinking like “my brand is media”.  This means that they have to go beyond the boring content they have on their websites.  They have to think about their audience more and find out what THEIR needs are and balance that with brand objectives. It means engaging content that add value not label language that forces patients to say “what the hell does that mean?”

Data can be useful but we all have to have to good sense to ask “what does this really tell us about our audience?”.  Oh, one more thing.  According to Forrester people are on the Internet as much as watching TV now.  You had better start embracing digital marketing because continuing to rely on mass channels is illogical at this point.