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In the Pink: Surfers Give Medical Sites a Clean Bill of Health

April 1999

Even though it is the largest segment of the U.S. economy, the health-care industry only began to heat up online in the last year. Research shows consumers are responding: A December analysis by Cyber Dialogue shows that more than 22 million Americans – 36 percent of American Web users – used the Web to find health or medical information. Health is on par with both sports and entertainment and ahead of music among the types of content people seek online.

"Health information is very compelling but relatively difficult to get for most people," explains Scott Reents, an analyst at Cyber Dialogue. "People find it increasingly difficult to spend time with their physicians, so many are turning to the Internet to get information they can't get elsewhere."

Health sites are now struggling to move from advertising to e-commerce as a way to shift the impact of those new eyeballs to the bottom line. Although data suggest that only a small portion of Net users are currently interested in buying medical products online, Reents says being able to buy pharmaceuticals on the Web will drive consumer adoption: "Drug sales may become the 'sticky app' of online health."

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