More Than Half of Doctors Now Use Tablets for Work Reasons

by Jaime Brewster

For the first time since we began tracking physician usage of tablets, more than half of surveyed doctors (51%) say they these devices for professional purposes, according to current wave data from the Sources & Interactions Study, September 2013: Medical/Surgical Edition. This represents a 4% increase from six months ago and 13% increase year-over-year.

The study also found that 49% of doctors say they use a tablet for personal and professional purposes, 19% for personal use only and 2% only for professional purposes. Slightly less than half of physicians (45%) say they use both a smartphone and a tablet for professional purposes, while 34% responded that they used both for work reasons in 2012.

Full-year data from the study shows that 28% of physicians use their tablets to read articles from medical publications – up from 18% in 2012 – and 27% use the devices to research specific clinical situations, up from 16%. The study also found that 26% of doctors read abstracts on tablets.

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 22 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 marketers 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.

To find out more about the study and specialty-specific data, let us know.