Today we start with a Klick Wire exclusive from HealthLink Dimensions (you're going to be insufferable this week -Ed.). Today they release their "Physician Communications Report 2025" based on surveys of 398 confirmed US HCPs from 50 different specialties taken earlier this year.

The 2024 report commented on how social usage had risen from 2023 and this year we see another jump from 2024. With a caveat.

The drop in the professional networks and the boost in the consumer platforms (especially TikTok and Instagram) are inexplicable. We're already eager to see the 2026 report as a "tie breaker."

This year the survey asked for ranking of communications channels rather than absolute preference. There are no numbers in the report but the ranking is interesting.

When asked the most receptive time of day—or when they prefer—to be contacted, HCPs said work hours.

However, when asked how much they work outside of core work hours, HCPs said 0.5 to 2.0 hours per day. This will mainly be catching up on notes etc. so it doesn't invalidate the finding above.

During the COVID-19 pandemic many said the Rep restrictions imposed might become permanent. That does not seem to have happened with 80% of HCPs saying that Reps have access to their workplaces in 2025.

The time-of-day information applies even more to Reps than emails. 

Invitations to different events benefit from being introduced on neutral, specialty-focused placements. The trust that these sources provide makes them valuable to pharma marketers.

Even all of the content above doesn't tell the full story presented in this data-laden, 27-page report. Healthcare marketers trying to reach elusive HCPs need this information so for that reason it gets the Klick Wire Must Download award two years running.

Philips Healthcare has a new edition of its Future Health Index for 2025. This report is based on surveys of 16,000 patients and 1,900 HCPs across 16 countries.

The least surprising finding of the report is that patients trust their doctor the most to give them information about AI in healthcare. Nurses are high on the list as well with news and social media falling behind.

Doctors may need to talk to their patients about AI more often. Optimism is higher for professionals than patients.

HCPs always want proof that clinical tools work and AI is no exception. 85% of healthcare professionals are concerned or unsure about legal liability for AI usage. 

To build trust for AI usage, HCPs want clinical guidance and proof of efficacy.

KPMG surveyed 2,500 US adults in April to get insight on a wide range of topics. Wire readers will be most interested in their take on AI usage in healthcare.

The top worry of Americans regarding AI use in healthcare is it getting between them and their doctors. Close second and third are accuracy and data breaches. You can see that respondents were thinking of AI as a full substitute for the doctor rather than a helper for them. 

When thinking about potential uses for AI, Americans had low expectations. Simple tasks topped the list and even then it was slightly less than half who said it might be a benefit.

The report is wide-ranging and includes a section on how Americans are getting information and news. Social is the top growth channel, and is linked to "independent opinion" as most of those will be found there. This highlights the danger of echo chambers in the population as individuals avoid information that challenges their beliefs.

Grab the report to find more insight into how Americans are handling an economy experiencing a lot of variability.

First we need to address the selection bias in this report. It wants to look at the behaviors of consumers that use social so it excludes those that don't. That means that you can't use the raw numbers for Boomers and apply them to the population at large.

Normally we can handle methodology in one or two sentences but not this one. The 965 participants had these qualifications and parameters:

This makes it obvious that the Boomer numbers especially, but the others as well, will be inflated.

The full report has a chart with five creative components but we cherry picked the two top ones.

Gen Z are more interested in interactivity than the others (think polls and other engagements) but even they still want information first.

The other content type that many respondents want is actual customers. For pharma this is patient ambassadors (yes, we know you know that -Ed.).

It's not surprising that even these selection-biased numbers show that Boomers prefer the phone but notice that even Gen Z are biased that way, albeit much reduced. 

Surprisingly, there is little interest in brand AMAs. This might change based on the nature of the speaker and for select audiences, but it starts as an uphill battle.

This report is worth a read for marketers interested in engaging on social, even if not performing direct sales there. However, keep the hard core selection bias in mind when interpreting the data.

Last week OpenAI launched HealthBench. This is a tool for testing generative AI systems against health questions. The system is made up of 48,562 unique criteria across five behavioral dimensions: accuracy, completeness, communication quality, context awareness, and instruction following

The company's o3 model came out on top followed by Grok 3 and then Geminini 2.5 Pro. The full chart didn't scale well but the full one on the blog post is interactive.

262 doctors from 60 countries were involved to create the tests and target answers for 5,000 realistic health conversations.

The full article is quite detailed but you can always use ChatGPT to summarize it. 

A study by Harris Poll is based on three waves of research from August, 2024 to February, 2025. It looks at Americans who want to live abroad. High on the list of considerations is always healthcare.

Only 39% have affordable healthcare today in America. That number rises to 53% for the more established Boomer demographic.

If Americans are moving abroad, they need to know they have healthcare. This factor is second to only daily living expenses.

Other health findings in this study include:

A pharma company (click through to see which one) conducted a survey with Harris Poll of 500 oncologists, urologists, and Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) in the US in March. They found some interesting gaps in cancer care.

Full disclosure, the items below are directly from the infographic. Where approximate signs are used the infographic used X of 10 numbering.

With the above we see that oncologists value their APP partners (NPs, PAs, etc.). Check out this quick infographic for more oncology information.

The HHS has released a request for information regarding increased use of digital health tools for Medicare. The document identifies five groups and puts specific questions to each.

It will be interesting to see what the AARP has to say about this initiative.

GLADD has a scorecard of 14 metrics that it uses to rate platforms for LGBTQ safety. It has published a report on social platforms and only one got more than 50 on the 100-point scale.

The report highlights how platforms have regressed in protections recently in terms of their policies. For marketers wanting to stay abreast of LGBTQ rights this report is a must-read.

X has been losing advertisers for years now. We reported on this in January of 2024 and it was already well underway then. In 2025 Emarketer is projecting a 16.5% increase for the first time in three years.

According to the preferences of Americans, health is a prime news subject. The three factors that define "what is news" are: is it factual, up to date, and important.

As manufacturers of health products we will be seen as competent, but also biased so we need to work around that to present information to our audiences.

Quad employed the Harris Poll to survey 2,068 U.S. adults of generations earlier this year to see how they are doing with their digital addictions (harsh -Ed.).

This study found that younger consumers are looking for ways to achieve "digital detox." 

It may be time to take another look at print materials provided at the HCP office, especially for younger patient audiences. When asked "How interested are you in the following forms of print media and tactile experiences?" younger Americans outperformed older ones.