The eHealth Market in Italy and Spain: Maximizing Consumer Channels of Influence

ABOUT DATAMONITOR 2
CHAPTER 1 Scope of this report 6
The eHealth Market in Italy and Spain: Maximizing Consumer Channels of Influence focuses on how pharmaceutical companies can take advantage of consumers’ demands for online tools and services to reach current and potential consumers of their products in Italy and Spain. 6
CHAPTER 2 Action Points 8
Pharmaceutical companies can reach target consumer groups by sponsoring educational content and technology-enabled services, which consumers can access through physician practice websites 8
Pharmaceutical companies can employ disease-focused online health communities as powerful market research and relationship building tools 8
Pharmaceutical companies must increase investment in educational programs about the importance of patient compliance, which should include providing consumers and physicians with information about the range of online and offline disease management and compliance tools available 9
CHAPTER 3 Consumers’ Online Behavior in Italy and Spain 10
Consumers are actively looking for health information for themselves and for their families 10
Internet usage in the EU and US (% total population) 11
Factors that consumers take into consideration when deciding whether to use the Internet to find health information 13
Search engines guide consumers’ online experiences 14
The Internet as an increasingly influential source of information 17
CHAPTER 4 eHealth Market Opportunities in Italy and Spain 19
Physician Practice Websites 19
Online Health Communities 23
Online Disease Management and Compliance Tools 27
CHAPTER 5 THE FUTURE DECODED 33
PHYSICIAN PRACTICE WEBSITES 33
Datamonitor recommends pharmaceutical companies sponsor educational content and technology-enabled services for use on physician practice websites 33
ONLINE HEALTH COMMUNITIES 35
Datamonitor recommends pharmaceutical companies employ disease-focused online health communities as powerful market research and relationship building tools 35
Attracting consumers to an online forum 35
DISEASE MANAGEMENT AND COMPLIANCE TOOLS 37
Datamonitor recommends pharmaceutical companies increase investment in educational programs about patient compliance, including consumer- and physician-focused information about the range of online and offline disease management and compliance tools available 37
CHAPTER 6 APPENDIX 39
List of Figures 39
Research methodology 41
2004 eHealthInsight Consumer Survey 41
2005 eHealthInsight Consumer Survey 41
References and future reading 42
Datamonitor’s eHealth SPP writing team 43
How to contact experts in your industry 44
List of Figures
Figure 1: One-third of consumers, regardless of where they reside, actively look for health information twice a month or more frequently 10
Figure 2: Internet penetration in Italy and Spain remain comparatively low 12
Figure 3: Consumers share many concerns that prevent them from using the Internet to look for health information 13
Figure 4: The most common way consumers navigate to an online information source is through a search engine 15
Figure 5: Datamonitor recommends that pharmaceutical companies take search engine optimization into serious consideration when designing a site 16
Figure 6: Approximately two-fifths of consumers in the US and the EU have asked their doctor about a disease symptom, specific drug or treatment based on something they have read online 18
Figure 7: In both Italy and Spain, a growing number of consumers would be interested in using physician practice websites in the future 20
Figure 8: Internet-based services, such as appointment scheduling, bill payment and email, will drive users to physician practice websites 21
Figure 9: Pharmaceutical sponsorship alone will not discourage patients in Italy and Spain from accessing a website 22
Figure 10: Consumers in Italy and Spain are more interested in using online health communities in the future than the average consumer surveyed throughout the US and the EU 24
Figure 11: Online communities are likely to enjoy the most success when launched from a website that is created around a central disease theme 25
Figure 12: Consumers express a strong interest in having message boards for questions answered by medical professionals 27
Figure 13: The demand for disease management tools goes largely unmet across all markets surveyed 28
Figure 14: Adoption of compliance tools is slowed by a low level of awareness among consumer that these tools are available to them 29
Figure 15: Consumers in Italy and Spain have an interest in a wide range of online disease management and online compliance tools 31
Figure 16: Consumer from Italy and Spain would like to use physician practice website to schedule appointments, access health information and communicate with their physicians 34
Figure 17: There are several types of invitations pharmaceutical companies can employ to attract consumers to an online forum 36
Figure 18: A large number of consumers are open to the idea of using both offline and online disease management tools in the future 37