The buzz surrounding the merger between medicine and social media continues, and physicians are taking notice. Crain’s New York reported 60 percent of doctors participating in a recent Manhattan Research survey say they use or want to use social networking sites. Digital marketing site Clikz offers an brief overview of the survey findings on the topic.
The survey’s findings are supported by the expanding subscriber base of the two top social networking sites for physicians. Sermo–named a 2009 top 50 tech start-up by BusinessWeek–boasts of more than 1,200 new subscribers weekly with a membership base of over 100,000. Crain’s is reporting Medscape Physician Connect’s membership at above the 100,000 mark as well.
Physicians aren’t the only ones taking notice. Pharmaceutical manufacturer Pfizer saw the potential in late 2007, when the company formed an alliance with Sermo. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, the social networking site decided to partner with the pharmaceutical company after receiving requests from physicians for a more convenient means of communication with the industry than sending sales people to their offices.
Tags: doctor online trends, doctors social networking, increasing medical sales, physicians online