DHC conducted a study “Understanding 2023 Channel Trends and Preferences for Patient Resources” in August with Healio. The resulting report is based on 996 US HCP survey respondents, 680 of whom treat diabetes or metabolic disorders.

Sure, this isn't news, people can read. However, only a third of Americans get their news by reading. Seeing the overwhelming majority of medical content being read online is heartening. Note that KOL content has a much higher video and audio component.

When asked where they getting their news about "medical products, treatments, and therapies" Medscape was the top source with Doximity and Epocrates making strong showings. It should be pointed out that #2 on the "Frequent" list is Healio, one of the survey authors.

When asking about digital resources for medical education the news sources were still at the top, many of which were on mobile apps. 

If we accept that YouTube is primarily a streaming video platform and only "social-adjacent" then the top pure social network for doctors is LinkedIn (more on this below in another story). This is a big deal as even HCPs were "Facebook first" up to a few months ago and this is the first survey that shows LinkedIn ahead.

As usual, there is more consumption than posting on these platforms but even 4% posting on LinkedIn is significant for this specialized market. Instagram also at 4% is likely the Millennial doctors aging in.

Regardless of Sermo's report from last week, HCPs in the DHC / Healio study definitely want patient materials. These materials, including CoPay programs at the top of the list, make up four of the seven topics.

This 16-page report is absolutely worth the download and includes much more information on what HCPs think of materials from pharma. Spoiler: "meh" (not very professional, but accurate so I'll allow it -Ed.). Most importantly, it gets the "Must Download" award from the entire team at the Klick Wire.

Indegene conducted a study with 100 leaders across marketing, sales, and commercial operations functions in May of this year. These leaders were from both the EU and the US with the largest contingent having a global focus.

When asked about their priorities over the next three years, nothing came close to new product launches.

85% of respondents agreed that their company has a common understanding of omnichannel vs. multichannel (26% strongly agreed). 48% define their hybrid commercial model as rep-first using digital tools.

The top three motivations for these programs are HCP-focused showing a healthy obsession with customer experience.

These results in the study are hard to interpret. Essentially 93% of respondents were saying that evolving their commercial model is urgent yet 90% also say they are confident in their commercial model to achieve their goals.

What this is likely saying is that pharmaceutical leaders are seeing change coming and while it's not here yet it will be within three years. These leaders also put AI and ML at number two on their omnichannel preparation list so that certainly factors in.

This study is a web page rather than a PDF which should make it mobile-friendly for our Monday morning readers and there is a ton more detail there. Jump over to see more detail on:

As Wire readers already know, LinkedIn has moved past "beta" for pharma HCP content and is now considering it mainstream. The professional social platform is highlighting its US healthcare population.

With 3.4 million nurses and 1.1 million doctors the platform has potential. Unlike other public social platforms, LinkedIn has a lot of data on users' work life for targeting. These population numbers seem to be growing as well with LinkedIn highlighting 2021 to 2022 numbers.

In fact, the platform has a healthcare microsite that highlights all of these options. 

For our global audience we have an unfortunate "but." But... all of this is US-only for now. With strong resistance from groups such as the PMCPA in the UK  (removed the link, we have details, but reach out to your Klick rep for more -Ed.) LinkedIn is treading carefully in the global markets. See the healthcare microsite and the healthcare ads policies for more information.

That's an unexpected headline. WordStream released its 2023 Agency report last year and one of the findings was that the top industry served is Healthcare.

The bottom industry was Dental, however. We wonder if "Healthcare" is too broad a category in 2023 including everything from nutrition and exercise to heavily regulated pharmaceuticals. We do suspect the pharma part of that number is much smaller. 

The report covers only the US and Canada and is made up of small companies with 84% fewer than 50 people. This is likely because larger firms have rules about sharing sensitive data such as that found in this report.

We can see these smaller agencies are digital-first as few of them offer traditional media. Influencer marketing didn't even make the list, an oversight by WordStream which will likely be corrected next year.

It's still a Facebook first world for Agencies with everyone on that platform.

We got to wondering if these platforms had changed much and thought we remembered an older Agency report from the company. Sure enough they had a 2020 version which we compared.

The numbers of Wire readers who are pharma marketers vs. agencies (not including Klick) are about equal and both of these groups will get a kick out of this report. Just remember these are small firms. Even so, Klick looks good by these benchmarks (promotional, but accurate so I'll allow it -Ed.).

Twitter's* Context tool for posts also extends to ads according to this story from the WSJ. For example, here is an Uber ad that claims readers can "Earn like a boss" and has a community Context note under it that highlights that studies show Uber drivers earn $11.77 per hour. 

Internally there is a mechanism to reverse critical Context notes and the story highlights one such reversal for an Apple ad with the insightful comment:

Pharma especially should beware these types of notes. There is no telling what fantasy naturopathic solution that Twitter readers would claim works better (excessive example, but gets the point across -Ed.).

* No, I'm not calling it "X"

In their baseline survey, PEW Research asks Americans about their internet use. 92% said they use the internet daily or more often.

Ok, technically the 8% at the end were "daily or several times a week" so our 92% is a bit inaccurate but it's directionally correct.

The 2024 reports are starting. Do they get earlier every year? We might have to start comparing them to holiday decorations.

Regardless, Brandwatch has some data out for social media for a number of industries, none of which are health-related. The main point here is that we want to highlight this gender chart for Twitter. Notice the heavy male bias on the platform now.

Women are all between 30% and 39% in this report. Twitter and other publicly-accessible platforms feature heavily in social listening because they are relatively easy to gather. It is important to remember that the more popular platforms are all gated. While some data from Instagram and Facebook will likely be available, unless the researchers are extremely diligent these data will get drowned out by Twitter and Reddit.

For comparison, when Twitter was Twitter in 2021 it had a 56% to 44% male to female ratio. As Twitter slides into ruin with less moderation and more extreme content researchers have to be even more diligent. 

Rock Health released their Q3 review of digital health funding on October 2nd... because financial people move fast. Like 2022, 2023 is slower, but still substantive in digital health investments.

A Deloitte study has found that US women pay, in aggregate, $15.4 billion more than men in the country's healthcare system. The amounts are higher than men for every age category.

And the out of pocket amounts men pay tend to be smaller.

This report paid particular attention to maternal vs. non-maternal care and found a discrepancy even with it excluded. 

Mobile users are installing fewer apps than they did in 2020. This reduction in a world of more available apps means that it's getting harder to get on a user's device.

A new report from McKinsey looks at various technologies and measures them by innovation, interest, and size. It's no surprise that AI leads in innovation.

A story in MM+M highlights the ongoing prominence of health content on TikTok. This content can be positive and useful in some ways but the platform is also rife with misleading health trends.

A short interview with a legitimate influencer on the platform provides advice for users and marketers alike.