While Sermo.com tends to be highlighted in the press, there are quite a few social networking platforms cropping up for healthcare industry professionals. Some serve particular niches like medical students or nurses; others serve all types of HCPs. Here are some descriptions of the new entries like, Tiromed, SocialMD, Clinical Village, and Nurse LinkUp. 

davidrothman.net
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The number of doctors and other clinicians publishing blogs detailing their professional experiences, successes, and frustrations for all to see is increasing. For marketers, it offers an enlightening glimpse into the healthcare professional's daily life, but for patients it raises questions regarding their privacy.

USAToday.com
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12% more U.S. Internet users visited health Web sites than the prior year, and the top four viewed Web sites were WebMD Health, National Institutes of Health, MSN Health and Yahoo Health.  2/3 of physicians say the growing trend of patients coming to them with online health information is positive, and 52% of physicians said they recommend health Web sites to patients.

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A recent Manhattan Research survey shows that more physicians than ever feel that patients coming into their office with online materials is having a net positive effect. However, some specialists such as neurologists, surgeons, and cardiologists, tend to be more wary of how the patient may use that information.

ihealthbeat.org

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As online health information increases, smaller players are making significant inroads.

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During the first quarter, the online health information category grew 12% over the same period last year. This represents 31 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience, according to data from comScore.  While the traditional players - WebMD, MSN and Yahoo! continued to lead the category, smaller players are gaining traction. Healthline.com traffic rose 269 percent, while QualityHealth.com jumped 114 percent. Recent entrant RevolutionHealth.com has doubled its traffic since the beginning of the year to 486k visitors in March. comScore data also reveals a high degree of user loyalty for the health portals, as evidenced by the low degree of cross-visitation that occurs within the category.

 

Top 10 Online Health Portals

  Q1 2007 vs. Q1 2006

  Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations

  Source: comScore Media Metrix

                         Average Monthly Unique Visitors (000)

                                                                Percent

                  Property            Q1 2006       Q1 2007      Change

  Total U.S. Internet Population      169,728       176,195          4%

  Health - Information                 49,473        55,260         12%

  WebMD Health                         13,700        17,114         25%

  NIH.gov                               9,061         9,816          8%

  MSN Health                            7,951         8,068          1%

  Yahoo! Health                         3,642         6,671         83%

  Everyday Health                       4,135         6,421         55%

  About.com Health                      5,177         5,827         13%

  MayoClinic.com                        4,032         4,072          1%

  AOL Health                            2,070         3,659         77%

  Healthline.com                          725         2,674        269%

  QualityHealth.com                     1,206         2,586        114%

sev.prnewswirse.com

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