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Latest Research on Physician Use of Online Resources
In May and June 2021, Elsevier surveyed 1,778 physicians across the globe about their use of patient education materials and their preference on online resources for research. Here are some of the results.
Physician Use of Patient Education Materials
Sixty-four percent of physicians globally claim to use patient education materials every week. In terms of preferred content types, the study found these to be the most common:
- Treatment guidelines (89%)
- Medical journal articles (89%)
- Online CME (72%)
- Clinical trial information (66%)
Factors Affecting Choice of Resource
Eighty-one percent of physicians surveyed feel credibility is the number one factor affecting their choice of resources. Coming in second was up-to-date information or research at seventy-eight percent and ease of search or navigation at sixty percent.
Physician Use of Online Resources and Social Media
We also looked at our 2019 and 2021 survey data to look for trends, which resulted in some interesting findings about physicians and their use of online resources to stay informed and up to date.
Most Popular Online Resources
Online medical journals continue to be the most popular online resources for physicians in 2021. When comparing the numbers against 2019, we found an increase in journal usage across all regions.
The table below shows the three most popular online resources for physicians with global and year specific data. (percentages represent the number of physicians indicating the resource is their top choice).
Region
Resource
2019 (%)
2021 (%)
Change (%)
APAC
Online medical journals
Google & other search engines
Clinical reference portals
86
68
70
89
75
77
3
8
7
USA
Online medical journals
Google & other search engines
Clinical reference portals
82
77
82
85
71
82
3
-6
0
EMEALA
Online medical journals
Google & other search engines
Clinical reference portals
77
73
63
82
70
69
5
-3
6
Social Media
Forty-nine percent of those surveyed believe their use of social media for professional purposes will increase in the future. Among the social media platforms, we found physicians most commonly using:
- YouTube
- Doctors.net
- Doximity
Webinars, Webcasts & Podcasts
Our research revealed significant jumps in use of webinars, webcasts, and podcasts as important sources of information. Globally, fifty-eight percent of physicians agreed on the importance of these resources. When we bucketed the responses by region, we found the following increases between 2019 and 2021.
Region
2019 (%)
2021 (%)
Change (%)
APAC
50
58
8
USA
40
53
13
EMEALA
36
65
29
Want to review our survey findings in easy-to-digest infographics you can view and share? To see the complete results for the patient education resources survey, download the infographic here.
To view the results for the physician use of online resources and social media survey, download the infographic here.
Article Written by: Alex Brown
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