COVID-19’s lasting impact on digital communication in healthcare
The ongoing digital transformation of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries has been greatly accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. In The Medscape Professional Networks’ latest white paper, Healthcare’s New Normal: COVID Speeds Shift to Digital Communications, key opinion leaders and industry experts agree that in the post-pandemic world, even as lockdowns are lifted and restrictions relaxed, the emerging trends for an increase in digital communications will stay.
Medscape, the leading online destination for physicians worldwide, interviewed a series of respected physicians and healthcare professionals on how the pandemic has impacted the way they manage their practice and learn about new clinical advances and treatments. Dr. Kerr, professor of Cancer Medicine in Oxford, United Kingdom, emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic has driven an enormous change in how he delivers cancer care: “there’s great momentum for our national health service to be able to embrace the new digital health technology. It has been a remarkable turnaround. And it’s here to stay.” Dr. Silverberg, a gastroenterologist in Toronto, sees this current moment as an “opportunity to embrace new technologies to make medicine and healthcare more efficient and more tech-friendly”.
The white paper also features exclusive insights from a recent Medscape survey about how the pandemic has changed the way global physicians interact with the pharmaceutical industry, including:
- 91% of physicians outside the US (OUS) report higher consumption of online medical content
- A shift to virtual interactions with pharma reps is expected, with 61% of OUS physicians anticipating a decrease in in-person meetings
- Virtual congress attendance has dramatically increased, with OUS physicians reporting a 67% increase
- 56% of OUS physicians say changes in how they use different information sources will last more than a year, if not be permanent
Read the full white paper, Healthcare’s New Normal: COVID Speeds Shift to Digital Communications, to discover more.
