Some two-thirds (68%) of healthcare professionals go online every week to view information about medicines, according to a new report.
EPG Health Media’s survey of over 200 healthcare professionals also found that 69% of HCPs search out and read treatment strategies and guidelines online.
Almost two thirds of HCPs cited access, time and cost as obstacles to continuing medical education (CME) content, which 78% said in the report that they access monthly.
When it came to user preferences of this group, 92% of those surveyed considered the ability to rearrange and group content important in their use of online information tools.
The survey’s release comes as EPG upgrades epgonline.org, a pharmaceutical and healthcare resources platform for healthcare professionals.
First launched in 2001, the latest version of epgonline.org has been in development for nearly two years, rebuilding the site from the ground up as a user behaviour-centred resource.
With content in multiple languages for global access, users can now search for the latest regulatory information and journal articles, share content online and save articles for later through the new personalised dashboard.
The platform’s upgrade came in response to user feedback and market research undertaken by the digital communications firm relayed in its ‘Pharmaceutical Industry: HCP engagement’ report.
Commenting on the upgrade, Chris Cooper, managing director of EPG Health Media, said: “What we have done is deploy our knowledge, our experience, our expertise, best practice and proven technologies from big data management to user-experiences, and given our users what they actually want today and tomorrow.”
