ACNielsen HCI

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Which information sources are viewed as being very important to physicians and at the same time receive high exposure?

Among the more important sources of medical information, three stand out as also being ones to which physicians were heavily exposed during the past week.

When information sources and exposure rates are viewed together, medical journals, colleagues and pharmaceutical reps are at the top. Medical journals are ranked first by office-based high prescribers (GPs, FPs, DOs and IMs) as the most important source of medical information (76.2%) and also placed first as the source to which physicians were most often exposed during the past week (79.9%). These findings come from research conducted by ACNielsen HCI during February 2004. Another important source of information, colleagues, was ranked fourth by 57.1% of study respondents. However, relative to past week exposure, this information source was third with a rating of 68.3%. At 46.5%, pharmaceutical reps ranked fifth as an important source of information but were ranked second by 77.5% on past week exposure.

While CME courses and conferences/symposia were considered to be very important source of medical information with ratings of 72.4% and 70.9%, respectively, their exposure rates were much lower at 35.2% and 24.0%, respectively. At the same time, physicians' exposure to pharaceutical company mailings (59.9%), reference publications (48.9%) and prescription pads (45.4%) was quite high; however, as an important source of medical information, each was low with ratings of 11.9%, 31.9% and 12.3%, respectively.

These findings were based on a sample of 4,391 physicians.

Important Sources of Medical Information Past Week Exposure

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Do's and Don'ts

*Do's*
		When selecting promotional vehicles for your products, consider both the importance of the medical information source as well as the degree to which physicians are exposed to the source.

*Don'ts*
		Don't use promotional vehicles that have a relatively low value as a source of medical information unless you can selectively target those who view them as being important.

Sources of Information Core Messages Sales Effort
Professional Advertising Promotional Campaigns Consumer Advertising
ROI/Maximizing Promotional Efficiency FAQs Main Page


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