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New Study Finds Use of the Internet Now Dominates Quantitative Research
Worldwide
NEW YORK, Feb. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Three out of five market research studies -- 60 percent of those fielded in the US and abroad -- were conducted online last year, according to the 2007 Medefield Pharmaceutical Market Research Trends Study.
The report, released today, indicates that Internet-based market research -- once the orphan of the industry -- is now conducted three times more often than telephone interviews and nearly four times as often as those performed face-to-face, making online research the undisputed leader in methodology for quantitative physician studies.
"This is more than a trend, it's a fact of life," said Johanne Guarda, Senior Vice President of Medefield America, who pointed out that this is the fourth year in which the company has produced its study.
Although previous Medefield studies have indicated steady growth in the online category, last year's increase -- up 43 percent -- showed a sharper curve than in any of the previous years. At the same time, the use of face-to-face and telephone research experienced a sharp decline, with face-to-face falling 28 percent and telephone interviews dropping 41 percent since 2006. There was a clear correlation between previous experience with the Internet and an increased comfort level, resulting in a higher expectation of quality and access to a large cross-section of doctors.
The study also showed an increase in the spread of global online research, with Eastern Europe and parts of Asia and Latin America gradually moving onto the scale, though still far behind the U.S. and Western Europe. Researchers now report Internet experience in Brazil (9 percent) and Japan (6 percent), two countries that had previously been thought too remote for large scale online studies.
"What we're seeing," added Guarda, "is that market researchers have
grown more a
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