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"This study underscores that the patient-empowered interactive health market will continue to grow at a rapid pace in 2009 and beyond," said Christopher M. Schroeder, CEO of HealthCentral. "With our unique audience-knowledge model, HealthCentral focuses on a keen understanding of consumers' online needs and desires to access information on their terms. This new study places HealthCentral in a top market spot and reinforces the growing need for a qualified-scale online health site that connects highly engaged audiences with premium content and product."
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HealthCentral Engages Most Active Online Health Consumers
The Manhattan Research Cybercitizen Health(TM) v8.0 study confirms that HealthCentral has aggregated an active community of online health information seekers. Overall, the study indicates that HealthCentral visitors were the most likely to request a prescription drug from their physician, as compared to other sites such as the WebMD and EverydayHealth networks. HealthCentral attributes this level of engagement to its rich, issue-specific content and engaged audience with 91 percent of HealthCentral visitors citing a chronic condition and 85 percent searching for pharmaceutical information online in the past 12 months. User interaction has grown steadily over the past year with HealthCentral's Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder site, ADHDCentral.com, reporting a growth of more than 330 percent in year-over-year page views, increasing 315 percent in visits and, since last October, reporting a consistent 20 percent month-to-month growth.
Reinforcing the consumer trend toward qualified and condition-specific online health information, the study also revealed that notably, calls to doctors have decreased while online health info seeking increased over the past year.
"Brands no longer can afford to mass market to customers; they must invent new ways of individually working with and for people's evolving needs for more interaction and instant access to qualified information online. Shifting consumer preferences to qualified online health sites like HealthCentral opens up opportunities for marketers who increasingly are looking to target consumers with accurate, condition-specific information on consumers' terms," stated Schroeder.
*Manhattan Research's Cybercitizen Health(TM) v 8.0 surveyed 8,714 U.S. adults (age 18 and over) by telephone and online. The margin of error for the telephone data set is +/- 1.6% at the 95% CI, and +/- 2.1% at the 95% CI for the online data. More information about the study and advisory service may be found at www.manhattanresearch.com/cch.
About The HealthCentral Network
The HealthCentral Network, Inc. (www.HealthCentral.com) is comprised of the highest quality condition- and wellness-specific interactive health sites where consumers and vetted experts share real-life, health-related experiences and information. Recognized for its unique audience-knowledge model and targeted online health advertising network, HealthCentral has strategic relationships with leading online health tools (such as Microsoft's HealthVault) as well as more than 25 leading health non-profits (such as The American Diabetes Association). HealthCentral is venture backed by IAC/InteractiveCorp (NASDAQ: IACI), Polaris Ventures, Sequoia Capital, The Carlyle Group and Allen & Company.
SOURCE The HealthCentral Network
