Sales & Marketing

Smartphone and iPad use among physicians is rising fast

If you’ve been watching the growth in smartphone adoption and wondering whether or not you should be considering mobile in your marketing plan, here are some statistics you might be interested in.

An estimated 81% of physicians use smartphones (up from 72% in 2010), according to the latest Manhattan Research survey of 2,041 physicians.

Furthermore, in their report on ePharma Physicians (the 87% who use digital channels for pharma resources and connecting with reps),  Manhattan found that 45% would like to access pharma product information on their smartphone or iPad.

Physician adoption of the smartphone may be just a ramped-up version of what is occurring in your other audiences as well. 

A recent Pew survey of 2,277 American adults produced these findings:

• 35% of adults own a smartphone
• highest levels of smartphone adoption are among the financially well-off, non-whites, and those under age 45
• 87% of smartphone owners access the internet or email on their handheld
• 25% of smartphone owners say they use the phone for most of their online needs

Is it time to mobilize your resources? The demographics of your audience should definitely be a consideration.

But with the rapid rise in smartphones,  it’s probably a good idea to consider making your sites mobile friendly, especially if the audience is made up of healthcare professionals. 

In the Manhattan ePharma Physicians study, more than half of physicians felt it was important to be able to access information from pharma across all of their devices.

Once you’ve mobilized your website, you will have another opportunity.

You can watch your metrics to see whether or not there’s a chance your audience would welcome other mobile tools.

Awhile back, I predicted that physicians’ smartphone adoption would reach 81% by 2012.  It looks like the future is here.

Pamela Todd is content strategist at Siren Interactive.

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