Despite Rapid Adoption of Social Media in Other Industries, Healthcare Lags Behind

My company just released the results of our 2nd annual socialmedia adoption in the healthcare industry. For the second year in a row, this annual survey of Internet users shows continued slow adoption of Web 2.0 in healthcare.

Read Strategic's press release here...

While the results seem generally negative, it's worth sharing the full results so everyone can compare with last years results, especially as HIMSS 2010 is going on this week.

Here is last year's post with the results: http://majka.blogspot.com/2009/03/prognosis-negative-on-social-media.html

Here is last year's press release: http://gotostrategic.com/site/index.php/site/news_single/prognosis_negative_on_social_media_adoption_in_healthcare/

Major takeaways:
- prognosis for social media adoption in the healthcare industry is still grim.
- sentiment in question 3 improved from 96 to 91 percent (almost 5%) but that still means almost everyone is still dissatisfied.
- we added a new question this year- question 4. Patient-focused support groups and Government healthcare agencies received generally good marks for effectively using social media.

Here are this year's full results: Let me know what you think- leave a comment...

1. How often do you review blogs, social networks, online communities and discussion forms for healthcare related information?

• Never- 0%
• Only once- 1.7%
• Occasionally- 35%
• Once a day- 20%
• All the time- 45%

2. What kinds of information do you look for in social media and online communities?

• Personal health information- 45%
• Public policy information- 53.3%
• Scientific research and developments- 56.7%
• Market trends- 66.7%
• Employment information- 26.7%

3. Do you think the health care industry, as a whole, is using social media well enough to communicate, share information and engage with consumers?
Yes- 8.3%
No- 91.7%

4. Are there segments of the healthcare industry who are superior in efforts to communicate, share information and engage with patients / consumers?

• Insurers / payers- 3.3%
  
• Healthcare providers- 18.3%
  
• Pharmaceutical companies- 23.3%
  
• Patient-focused support groups- 55.0%
  
• Government healthcare agencies (i.e., FDA, CDC, etc.)- 36.7%
  

(BTW, any comments about statistics, sample size or standard deviations will be summarily mocked. :))