10 Key Demographic Points from the Sources & Interactions Study

by Client Services

Did you know that the Kantar Media Sources & Interactions Study breaks down physicians groups beyond just their specialty and age?

Other ways the data can be looked include:

• How soon the physician adopts a drug (Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, Traditionalist)
• Whether or not the physician sees sales reps
• Whether or not the physician is a Key Opinion Leader
• Whether the physician is hospital or office-based (new to the 2013 study)

Here are some of the top-level findings within these different groupings:

1. Of the physicians participating in this study, 12% are under 35 years old, 24% are 35-44 years old, 40% are 45-59 years old, and 24% are 60 years old or older.
2. About 42% of physicians prefer to prescribe a new drug once it is in fairly common use, followed by those who prefer to prescribe it after a few others have tried it successfully (34%)
3. About 12% of physicians are willing to prescribe a new drug as soon as it is released and only 11% wait to prescribe a new drug until after it becomes a standard drug.
4. Almost a third (29%) of physicians surveyed don’t meet with pharma sales representatives.
5. In terms of drug adopters, Early Adopters (83%) and Early Majority (85%) are more likely to see pharma sales reps than Late Majority (64%) and Traditionalists (45%).
6. Two-thirds (68%) of Key Opinion Leaders see pharma sales representatives.
7. The professional activities with the highest participation among respondents is teaching at a medical school (23%), followed by authoring an article for a publication (14%), speaking at a local professional association meeting (13%) and board membership of a local medical association (11%)
8. 15% of the physicians surveyed can be considered Key Opinion Leaders due to participating in at least 3 of these professional activities.
9. Among Key Opinion Leaders, the activities with the highest participation are teaching at a medical school (64%), authoring an article for a publication (62%), speaking at a local professional association meeting (56%), speaking at a national conference (48%) and reviewing articles for a peer-reviewed publication (45%).
10. 81% of the study respondents are office-based physicians, while 19% are hospital-based.

Kantar Media’s Sources & Interactions™ Studies offer a detailed examination of healthcare professionals’ online and mobile activities, e-detailing experience, and exposure to (and evaluation of) information sources including traditional and emerging media, pharma reps, CME, conventions and more. The Medical/Surgical edition, conducted every six months, reports on the media preferences and habits of more than 3,000 physicians across 21 specialties; annual studies provide similar perspective on Pharmacy, NP/PA, Eyecare, Dental, Radiology, Managed Care, and Hospital C-Suite audiences. Sources & Interactions was designed to help manufacturers and their agencies cost-effectively allocate resources to their overall promotional mix, and provide publishers with specific insight about where their offerings fit into physicians’ (and other healthcare professionals’) information inventory.