Virtually everyone owns a cell phone. Nearly half of doctors own a PDA. As the two devices converge physician use will proliferate. Now is the time for pharmaceutical marketers to stake a claim. Medical brands that want to remain relevant cannot afford to ignore this new world of mobile medicine.
The U.S. is home to 196 million 14 to 65 year olds, and perhaps not coincidentally 196 million wireless subscribers, making cell phones officially ubiquitous. While personal digital assistants (PDAs) have been around since the Apple Newton, consumers have been slower to adopt them. On the other hand some 45% of doctors own a PDA. Increasingly the two devices are becoming one smartphone. While Europe leads the way, the Palm Treo is helping to ignite the U.S. market.
The majority of America’s nearly 800,000 active doctors are U.S. educated (74.7%), male (73.4%), and work in office based practices (67.2%). Despite this apparent homogeneity doctors are not created equal. Forrester’s wired physicians compared younger and older doctors. Younger doctors (those under 43) are twice as likely to own a PDA (62% vs. 31%), more than twice as likely to have broadband at work (61% vs. 27%), and nearly twice as likely to have broadband at home (53% vs. 30%). Translation: younger doctors are half as likely to be with one of your sales reps right now.
Two companies capitalizing on the migration towards mobile medicine are Epocrates and Skyscape. One in four physicians subscribe to Epocrates. Pharmaceutical companies pay for some 10% of subscriptions. Its Mobile CME system has delivered 100,000 CME certificates to over 30,000 healthcare professionals in the last six months.
Competitor Skyscape provides PDA access to over 270 medical and consumer health references. It claims over 400,000 medical professionals use its products. It also makes tools like Archimedes Medical Calculator which is a popular download.
Increasingly the best way to spend time with a physician will be on his PDA or smartphone. The time is ripe for pharmaceutical marketers to pilot campaigns with companies like Epocrates and Skyscape. Looking ahead, brands need to innovate medically relevant ways to reach physicians on their mobile devices.
It is not so easy I think
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