According to a new report from Healthlink Dimensions, HCP marketers need to focus on email for their audiences. While omnichannel is still important, consider these numbers when deciding where to put focus in the channel spread.

Healthlink surveyed 87 physicians, NPs, and PAs to gather this data. The relatively low "n" on the survey makes us worried about small differences in the data but not for the main findings. 

When it comes to receiving industry information it's no contest, email wins. In fact email is more than 2.5x more popular than in-office Rep visits. And don't even think about calling on the (smart)phone. 

The screens on which HCPs read these emails are varied, but the smartphone in the pocket is number one. Marketers need to ensure their emails format well on these smaller displays and resist the urge to create elaborate layouts (or use good device-dependent techniques). 

* Yes, that is a Lord of the Rings reference.

It's no surprise that HCPs want credit-awarding continuing medical education... but they rarely get it from industry. It's hard to find a way to create legitimate CME when coming from a brand perspective. 

The next two preferences, however, are popular with HCP marketers and essentially tell us we're largely on track. 

But don't waste HCPs' time. 78% of HCPs are spending between 30-60 minutes a day on professional information after hours and the Healthlink Dimensions report also highlights what HCPs don't want to hear about (opinion pieces top the list).

When it comes to information sources for therapeutic products or disease information, UpToDate took the top spot this year. 

The report highlights that last year Medscape was on top, being chosen by 70% of the respondents. This reinforces our concern about the low "n" value of 87 respondents as that can cause higher variability in the data. 

To reinforce our main point, however, email is still the clear winner in HCP communications.

This report from Healthlink Dimensions is excellent and contains data and charts on every page. For that reason we give it the much-coveted "must download" award.

Researchers evaluated 195 exhanges on Reddit's "Ask a Doctor" forum and compared the human answers to those generated by ChatGPT. In the evaluations regarding quality it wasn't even close.

If you're triggered by the use of Reddit, don't worry we cover that below (don't talk to the reader -Ed.).

Evaluators preferred the ChatGPT responses to Reddit HCPs in 78.6% of the 585 total evaluations (595/195 = 3.05 ... so there were three evaluators?).

We charted the comparative responses of Good (good or very good) and Empathetic (empathetic or very empathetic) from the evaluators and ChatGPT destroyed the human (theoretically) Reddit HCPs. 

Reddit is not a hospital or clinic. The "Ask a Doctor" subreddit does make efforts to validate true HCPs based on credentials but it's difficult to evaluate the skill of the person answering the question. The amount of toxicity from the general audience makes the "filter by flair" set to physician almost mandatory. 

Normally, we would expect doctors to be curt or abrupt because they are busy, however these are voluntary exchanges on an open forum so that constraint does not seem to apply.

Are answers on Reddit by doctors a good substitute for in-clinic or even telemedicine responses? We're not sure. But for this test at least they got trounced by ChatGPT.

While Elon Musk's Twitter is trying to be the world's "digital town square" by eliminating the platform's trust council TikTok is taking a decidedly different approach for advertisers. It is introducing Pulse with premium publishers.

The new offering shares ad revenue 50/50 with these publishers which seems like a win-win. Advertisers get safe, high-quality surrounding content and producers get revenue from their efforts. 

But wait, there's more. According to TikTok's numbers their monthly active users (MAUs) for the US now sit at 150 million in March while those from Meltwater show Instagram at 143. 

As we've shown before, patients value pharma much higher than the general population. This report provides another data point for that argument, a new report from PatientView based on its Corporate Reputation of Pharma survey.

This survey is pretty impressive, it includes opinions from a whopping 2,207 patient groups globally. As a group that regularly interacts with patient groups, we can vouch that this is a number that represents a lot of work.

Here are the top-line numbers from the press release that show the small increase in pharma reputation and the opinions of regions on patient access. The USA is way ahead on that metric.

The press release has data on actual companies, which we won't report on. But you can just jump on over to see what they found.

A new report from Disqo is based on a survey of 34,841 consumers from April 6-8 so it's definitely the latest data on podcast listeners. It's good news for podcast advertisers, especially if you target shows that have a loyal audience.

68% of the population listens to podcasts, but the number that do so weekly drops to 34%.

Most of the activities being performed while listening to a podcast keep people away from their computers (though they have access to their smartphones). This means ads should be awareness or if they are for action, they need to be mobile-first.

It's by no means a slam dunk that podcast listeners pay more attention there than when experiencing other ad formats. When asked to compare podcasts to other ad types 33% said more attention while 26% said less. 

However, the daily podcast listeners are much more engaged in the content their favorite shows endorse. Here, 45% pay more attention and only 23% less. 

If trying podcast advertising the quality of the audience looks like it matters a lot.

PEW Research has looked at how Americans listen to podcasts and differences based on race. The research group found that around half of the population has tuned in over the past year, but like our other Podcast story that number likely drops quickly when looking at more frequent listeners.

The topics consumed vary by group as well. 

Marketers looking at podcasts to round out an omnichannel approach can use this report to refine their target shows.

The healthcare industry is being targeted by two large hacking organizations: Cl0p and LockBit.

SOCRadar also reports that LockBit is a larger portion of the global attackes across all industries (the two may be closer in Healthcare).

And Healthcare is a major target of these organizations.

The FDA has released draft guidance for decentralized clinical trials (DCTs). This technique has been under consideration for trial sponsors for years and now there is an official guidance for it.

The LabPulse article has a quote from FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf:

The document touches on the most important aspects of DCTs:

It's not just OTC having all the fun on TV. Rx allergy and seasonal has had a year-over-year (not seasonal) jump of 208% according to iSpotTV. We charted the sample data provided to Endpoint News.

Last week Bing's AI chat search opened to everyone and we can all see if we can make it's hidden personality "Sydney) send us its signature threats (also video example from Linus Tech Tips -- highly recommended by the author):

As a test I asked the tool for Wire stories using this prompt (of course): 

I tried both "creative" mode and "precise" mode and neither could find anything. It was finding articles from 2015 to 2021 and essentially ignoring the one-week requirement. I guess the Wire author is safe for a few months at least.

This report from the CMO Council and KPMG looks at how Sales and Marketing are getting along globally. It is based on interviews with 300 marketing leaders.

There are places of alignment and divergence but the main problems are that sales and marketing use fragmented technology (61%) and don't co-own customer data (60%). This story might resonate with pharma marketers as well.

The top five issues impeding better cooperation are:

Areas on which marketers are focusing over the next 12 months:

A new report from Experian looks at patient access in 2023. It takes the approach that its products can help solve the found issues, of course, but it highlights an interesting split between patients and providers along the way. 

When asked about how patient access to providers was trending, patients were mainly "meh." Providers, on the other hand, said it was much worse and very few thought the industry was the same.

When asked about their challenges and highlights, providers said staffing shortages and digital access, respectively.