Like patients, physicians regularly use the Google search engine for medical information. But not for the same reasons.
We knew that Google was a precious tool for patients, we did not know that doctors used it daily in the professional setting. 96% of general practitioners use it to find medical information, according to the first web and health barometer carried out jointly by the Listening Pharma Institute for Health Studies and the Hopscotch Digital communication agency. One in four general practitioners uses the search engine several times a day, including during medical consultations.
Others use it to discover new products or to consult official sites. That of the Haute Autorité de Santé tops the list. Consumer news sites and social networks, on the other hand, are at the bottom of the rankings.
This is not the case for patients who choose the sites most referenced by the search engine. Cancer tops the list with 1.5 million monthly requests over the past 12 months, followed by AIDS (550,000 requests), diabetes and depression.
The web being a place of exchange, Internet users generate 80% of health content on the Internet through social networks. Facebook has the lion’s share with 51% of content, ahead of Twitter, 29%. Main topic of discussion on the internet (sites, forums and networks combined): mental disorders.
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