Doximity has a new report out about telemedicine users in the US.

The company used actual telemedicine billings with it's own data matched by NPI. To this they added a survey of 1.200 US telemedicine-using physicians across nine specialties and a survey of 2,400 adult patients across the U.S., half with a chronic illness.

Telemedicine seems to be incorporated into many physicians' practices. Of those using the technology, daily and weekly were by far the most common frequencies reported.

It is likely a common tactic for HCPs is to have "telemedicine days" on a weekly basis to attend patients.

Like Zoom in the office, video is the dominant form of telemedicine, though audio was popular as well. Video allows patients and physicians to connect more effectively and to "show" as well as "tell."

When patients were asked how they engage in these telemedicine visits, unsurprisingly the smartphone was dominant.

Since only 20% of patients highlighted a traditional phone for their visits, "Wi-Fi or Internet" is likely underreported by patients who use their devices but don't really know how they connect.

Patients were asked how telemedicine affected their satisfaction with their care. 88% said it increased or stayed the same.

Perhaps the most important finding in the Doximity report is that of patients adherence to treatment. With the easier, more accessible telemedicine options, 77% of surveyed physicians said they saw increased or same adherence from their patients. 

Importantly, of the remaining 23%, 21% were simply unclear on the adherence of their patients. Only 2% said they saw decreased adherence.

There are many more findings in the 30-page Doximity report that are made more valuable by the scale of the research conducted.

Tebra surveyed 1,000 Americans and 500 HCPs about their thoughts on generative AI and health topics. The company also compared the answers of the three top public AI tools to five questions and had the HCPs rank the answers. 

HCPs say they will be using AI in the future for many tasks, not just information lookup.

HCPs say most of AIs benefits come in the form of saved time and the drawbacks are limitations in the accuracy and abilities of AI.

The largest number of Americans said they were "moderately" comfortable with AI in healthcare, but the chart definitely skews negative. 

When HCPs judged the medical answers of three AI language models: OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Bard, and Microsoft's Bing AI, they liked ChatGPT most of the time but Bard gave it a run for its money. 

This report is a little old, it was released at the end of April (yes, we missed it at the time -Ed.). It will be interesting to see if ChatGPT can maintain its lead in answer quality.

Talk about a fast-moving story. Last week Meta launched Threads, it's Twitter competitor, and uptake has been dramatic. The app is based on Instagram credentials so any of those users can just log in without creating a whole new account. 

Here are a sequence of Threads from Mark Zuckerberg during last week that shows the growth. Note the date stamps taken on Saturday evening. Don't be fooled by the first one, the app was launched on July 6 so "2 days" is as far back as it really goes.

30 million after one day and 70 million after two, in the morning. We are normally very skeptical of new social platforms because of the headwinds they face getting a critical mass of users. By basing this app on Instagram, Meta is way ahead.

As of now there is no advertising on the platform, but seriously, this is Meta we're talking about. Brands know they will have options eventually. Here is a random selection of brands big and small the author found on day one of using the app.

Perhaps one of the most interesting elements of Threads is the promise that it will support ActivityHub, a protocol used to post on decentralized networks like Mastodon. The support is not there in the initial launch but the technology holds the promise of cross-platform identity and that sounds like a very Meta-verse thing.

This content is sales materials through-and-through (don't worry, we don't take sponsorships -Ed.) but it's chock full of stats about HCPs. 

The infographic creates a compelling story for social-based content aimed at HCPs.

The information isn't very surprising, but good reminder for HCP marketers that post-congress is a prime opportunity for KOL or reactive content.

The FTC is taking what amounts to an ISI approach to sponsorship disclosures for influencers. No longer can #ad or #spon be included in a row of hashtags at the bottom of post copy, now it must be presented at the same time.

The updates are wide-ranging and we have highlighted the areas we think might be of special concern to pharma marketers.

A side note, it is particularly entertaining to read the gloss of comments the FTC received included in Section II Review of Comments on Proposed Revisions to the Guides and Additional Changes to Proposed Guides Published in July 2022 (your definition of "entertaining" needs review -Ed.).

Every party in a paid endorsement is being held accountable by the FTC so all parties must pay attention to the end product. 

The guidance from the FTC includes examples, many of which are relevant to pharma marketers. Use these quotes to find the examples if you're diving into the 84-page FTC document (don't talk to the audience -Ed.).

For any marketers familiar with the 14 SEM letters sent by the FDA in 2009 the following will resonate. Providing disclosure that a social post is sponsored under a "More..." link is not adequate according to the FDA.

This is the key, the disclosure must be "clear and conspicuous." Marketers using influencers need to review their programs to ensure that disclosures are front and center. 

Everyone is talking about AI... but you don't want to just talk about it, you want to understand it (don't talk to the audience -Ed.). The first step to get there is to use / Google the correct terms.

This document is 50 AI terms with easy-to-read descriptions. Here are five that the author particularly liked.

Marigold first put out their market research data on US consumer trends back in February, we covered it then. 

They have now released a cut of that data specific to GenX. If your patients are between 57 and 43 years old then this data may be of use. We compared two charts from our previous story with the new GenX-specific data.

GenX continues to like email for ecommerce, but the generation is above average across the board when it comes to digital channels. When asked if they had purchased from a channel, they said:

To get the personalization they crave (97% will trade personal data for discounts) GenX are more likely than the average to share all forms of data.

At 42 pages (many GenX readers will know that as the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything) this document is a worthwhile download for marketers interested in GenX.

This is solidly in the Rumor category. A Twitter user, Matt Navarra, apparently overheard a conversation:

When asked the Twitter user did not answer where or when it was overheard. Regardless, it highlights the use of LinkedIn for thought leaders. HCP marketers could cultivate activities like this on the platform, especially with the semi-recent addition of branded HCP materials.

Medical Economics has put out an issue filled with AI insights. Most of the content is opinion and thought leadership, which is fine but doesn't make for informative charts for the Wire. Fair play, however, compels us to highlight that we found the Tebra study (featured earlier) in this issue.

The seven main stories are:

Grab a copy of the PDF to get the whole story.

If we doubted the consumerization of healthcare (which no one did, by the way) those doubts are being put to rest by this announcement from Amazon. 

Prime Day 2023, the annual frenzy of disappointment wherein Prime subscribers look for something more than 25% off (harsh, but accurate -Ed.) is July 11-12 this year. Included in the deals is apparently a subscription to One Medical, which gets a 28% reduction from $199 to $144 for the annual plan. 

Here's a tough story to cover when your policy isn't to mention companies or their brands... Brand Finance has released their Healthcare 2023 ranking for pharma and medical devices.

Luckily they also included providers, and we have no qualms about talking about those (waiting for the call from business development now -Ed.).

If you want to see a chart like this, and much more data, for pharma and medtech check out the source link. The full report is paid only but the teaser has a ton of interesting information for corporate reputation managers. 

Threads will almost certainly accelerate this behavior.