August 1, 2002
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AMA study suggests that more than two-thirds of physicians access the Internet daily
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Findings of the AMA Study:
- Physician use of the Web is becoming more frequent. Two-thirds of Internet-connected physicians access the Web daily, an increase of 24% since 1997.
- Physicians who use the Web have extended the hours they spend online. The average number of hours a physician uses the Web per week jumped from 4.3 in 1997 to 7.1 in 2001.
- Additional growth can be expected in the number of hours spent on the Web, with physicians indicating they expect to use the Internet an average of 9.6 hours per week during the next 6 months.
- In 2001, 65% of physicians 60 years of age or older used the Web, compared with 43% in 2000.
- Approximately 3 of 10 physicians using the Internet currently have a Web site, a proportion that has remained constant since 1999.
- The primary reasons physicians have a site on the Web is to promote and advertise their practice or provide patient education and information.
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According to a study recently released by the American Medical Association, almost half of physicians surveyed report that the World Wide Web has had a major impact on the way they practice medicine. The rising influence of the Internet on clinical medicine has propelled an increase in the frequency and duration of Web use among the 78 percent of physicians who now make use of cyberspace.
These new findings come from the 2002 American Medical Association (AMA) Study on Physicians’ Use of the World Wide Web, which interviewed a total of 977 physicians in the United States from August to December 2001. The survey is the fourth AMA-conducted analysis of physician Internet usage patterns.
The physicians interviewed for the 2002 AMA Study on Physicians’ Use of the World Wide Web were selected randomly from a comprehensive database of information on all physicians in the United States including members and nonmembers of the AMA. Physicians employed by the federal government, 70 years of age or older, or in residency training were excluded from the AMA survey.
Comprehensive results of the 2002 AMA Study on Physicians’ Use of the World Wide Web are available for purchase. To order the study, contact: Shelley Benson at (312) 464-5364. PR
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