Do you struggle to drive HCPs to your Medical Information website?

Many pharmaceutical companies have invested in developing their own non-promotional medical websites to support healthcare professionals (HCPs). While these platforms can offer valuable content, attracting substantial visitor traffic remains a significant challenge, often impacting return on investment.  

Additionally, the diversity in design, navigation, and user experience across independent pharma sites can lead to inconsistency and frustration for users. Navigating the sheer volume of resources while under time pressure is a huge hurdle, as often verbalised by healthcare professionals. 

How do Pharma websites compare to an independent resource? 

We ran an analysis on 25 leading Pharma companies in the UK to see how their Medical Information websites' traffic compared. In the majority of cases, the website’s estimated monthly traffic was under 2,000 visits per month. By comparison, there was an average of over 54,000 visits per month to their respective product pages on emc (medicines.org.uk) alone. 

Granted, the volume of people gaining visibility of your medicines information is not the only important factor, but also the quality of the traffic. The electronic medicines compendium (emc) is a trusted, cross-industry medicines information website that attracts millions of visitors annually and is widely respected by healthcare professionals (HCPs) - in our annual user survey, 78% said emc is their first choice website for medicines information, while 71% of HCPs say they use emc to inform prescribing decisions. 

Providing a one-stop shop for information 

emc goes beyond hosting the up-to-date Summaries of Product Characteristics (SmPCs), Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) and risk minimisation materials which it has traditionally been known for. It continues to add more medicines information content to support HCPs’ information-seeking journeys, and also expanded its offering in February 2023 through a collaboration between Datapharm and MILE (Medical Information Leaders in Europe), introducing searchable Scientific Response Documents (SRDs). This enables HCPs to self-serve and access detailed product information beyond the SmPC, around the clock, and has significantly deepened the emc’s value as a resource for medical professionals.

Since launch, the SRD Search service has grown to cover approximately 400 products and presentations. Pharmaceutical companies subscribed to the service benefit not only from increased visibility but also from valuable insights into search behaviour, helping them identify emerging trends and respond more effectively to the evolving needs of HCPs online.

Building on the emc’s reputation as a trusted resource, Datapharm has enhanced the SRD Search solution to allow medical search results to seamlessly redirect healthcare professionals (HCPs) to existing pharmaceutical company websites. This integration offers the best of both worlds, ensuring consistent access to information via both the emc and the pharma-owned platforms, while maximising visibility and utility for HCPs.

If you’d like to learn more about driving traffic to your medical website, or SRD Search, please email us at [email protected].