Patients Searching Internet for Info on Their Docs

Physicians who don’t manage their online presence run the risk of failing to attract new patients…. 

A majority of Americans looking up health information online are no longer merely researching symptoms. They are going online to determine which physicians to see, what treatment to get, and what services a hospital or pharmacy might provide, and using that information to drive their choices.

According to Manhattan Research, which surveyed 5,210 adults who use the internet as a health resource, 54% of respondents said they did online research to decide what services they might need and who should provide them. Various surveys have said that roughly 75% of American adults search for health information online.

The findings reflect the trend of people becoming more comfortable with using the Internet for other aspects of their life and the natural progression they have made to using it for health-related decisions, said Maureen Malloy, senior research analyst for Manhattan Research. "We’ll see as the population of internet users keeps growing, more people will be online for health," she said.

They found that 79% of patients diagnosed with a chronic disease in the previous three months, and already active online, used the internet to influence their care decisions compared with 53% who were diagnosed for at least a year. And 20% of patients use online health information to find a primary care physician.

Because one out of every five patients uses online health information to choose a primary care physician, according to the research, physicians may need to put more effort into beefing up their online presence so they can have greater control over it, allowing them to communicate who they are and what they do.

The survey did not ask patients what sites they visit to find information, but other surveys have found that the most popular online place for people to start health-related information gathering is a search engine. Search engines also are good places for physicians to start when they want to see if their online presence needs help.

The most likely web-savvy patients to use the internet to influence their decisions on physicians and treatments were those with chronic conditions: angina, at 72%; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 70%; and Crohn’s disease, 69%. Manhattan Research said this indicates that newly diagnosed chronic-care patients were taking steps to plan which doctors to see, what treatments are available, and which drugs and devices could be used to treat them.

Analysts said the number of patients using the internet to pick their physicians and treatments could go up significantly when the insurance mandate of the Affordable Care Act takes effect on Jan. 1, 2014. The ACA is expected to add 30 million to the insured rolls starting in 2014, and many of those patients will be looking for a primary care doctor for the first time.

Manhattan Research Oct, 2012