Webchutney recently announced the findings of their latest report -Catching the e-Healthcare Bug based on a survey of over 2000 respondents from an online consumer panel.
Catching the e-Healthcare Bug analyses the growing influence of digital media on the Indian healthcare segment by sharing trends in the usage and perception of the internet by consumers.
Key findings
- 72% respondents of the survey admit to using internet to access healthcare related information and 8 out of 10 respondents have looked for information not only for themselves but others also.
- 85% of these respondents are males out of which 44% belong to the 25-35 age group explaining the surge in use of digital mediums like internet and mobile.
- 70% respondents of the survey expressed trust in Internet over friends or family or other traditional advertising channels.
- 65% of the respondents have used Internet to see information on specific disease or medical condition while 47% expressed an interest in using relevant mobile applications. 67% of the respondents also expressed interest in location based mobile healthcare services
- 96% of healthcare seekers log into net at least once every day.
- Most of these users use the search engines to seek relevant information. Social networking sites and brand website are also popular platforms where users seek information from.
- The report also indicates that 9 out of 10 respondents (90%) found healthcare information online useful to them and created an impact on the users decisions. 33% people shared that the online information impacted their decision about treating an illness/medical condition while 60% people saw the impact on how they coped with a chronic condition or managed pain.
With spike in income levels, literacy, new channels of communication and exposure to better healthcare services, digital medium can play a big role by not only being a provider or data bank of the information but also gaining trust of the consumers. The medium enables the consumer to be better quipped with information and also help them discover and share their experiences and learnings which can further impact a brand in this segment.
You can read and download the full report here.