While the big topic today among most pharmaceutical marketers generally has something to do with FDA regulations and DTC marketing on social media, another equally important question is about the healthcare community. As more physicians start using online tools in their daily practice, what are the best ways marketers can reach them?

We recently chatted with Meredith Ressi of Manhattan Research to learn more about the behavior of healthcare professionals online and the most effective strategies for reaching them. Here is a snippet from the full interview, available to eMarketer Total Access clients.

eMarketer: What types of online information do healthcare professionals want most and what sources do they find most credible?

Meredith Ressi:

Healthcare providers, specifically physicians, are integrating their use of digital media and online sources across a broad spectrum of activities. It’s very much a part of how they practice medicine. There’s lot of journal content, continuing medical education and video content that is available online today. Physicians are increasingly looking for things that help them with decision support during the workday—practical tools that are accessible and can help them easily get their questions answered.

We’re also seeing so many more physicians turning to the internet when they’re trying to make treatment decisions for patients. They turn to online journals such as Medscape, UptoDate and sites focused on evidence-based medicine that help them find best practices for treatment.

eMarketer: Have you noticed changes over time in how physicians search for information?

Ressi:

They used to be very loyal to a few websites like Medscape and Bedlinen for journal searches. Today, they’re much more search engine friendly. It’s also interesting that more than half of all physicians are accessing Wikipedia as a medical information source, but less than 10%—maybe more like 5%—of those are actually contributing to it. This is driven by physicians’ increasing reliance on search engines.

As far as age differences, we don’t see as many as you might think. We survey physicians of all ages and what’s been fascinating in the past few years is that there really isn’t a significant segmentation as there is with general consumers. Physicians have overcome that hurdle of education and income that often is a predictor of internet adoption. They have always been a tech-savvy, curious bunch. In fact, older physicians are more likely to be posting user-generated content online than younger ones.

eMarketer: What about physician community sites, such as Sermo and Ozmosis? How are physicians using them?

Ressi:

We’re seeing that adoption of professional communities—such as Sermo, Medscape Physician Connect, QuantiaMD—is still relatively low, with only about 20% of physicians accessing them.

With all the focus on these networks, though, it may be getting overlooked that two-thirds of physicians are accessing user-generated content online, broadly defined, and it’s not necessarily in closed communities. Discussions, for example, are happening in professional blogs and within Medscape or New England Journal of Medicine articles that enable reader comments. So there is a broad audience of physicians turning to their colleagues online through user-generated content that’s not necessarily on the social networks.

eMarketer: How is the increasing use of digital media changing the way that patients, peers and pharma companies interact and communicate with healthcare professionals?

Ressi:

With patients, it’s been a big shift. When I first started looking at the data five or six years ago, less than half of US adults were researching healthcare online. Today, 68% are. These engaged patients are bringing information to their physician’s office and talking about it. Today, you can’t really find a physician who says, “No, no one’s ever done that.”

Physicians went through a transition in coming to terms with this. Primary-care physicians were perhaps a bit put off by online health info at first, but they’ve been coming around over the past few years and have started recommending sites for patient education. Overall, we’re seeing a much more positive attitude from physicians in terms of patients taking an active role in their care. Many think it’s a good thing that some patients are active, involved and educated.

Physicians are also becoming more receptive to pharma marketers’ online info. Of course this varies based on the products and the program and the type of information. Primary-care physicians and a lot of the specialties are quite open to using patient education information to educate their patients about specific medications and conditions.

In terms of getting questions answered about a product, the pharma companies are certainly still the go-to resource for physicians. In fact, when a new product is launched, we see a great opportunity for a wide variety of online promotional interactions with physicians.

Key opinion leader webinars are another big area of interest. For example, if a pharma company has a relationship with a key opinion leader in a certain specialty who has either done work on a product or research in a certain area, a lot of times they’ll ask that person to do a webinar online and talk about some of their work. It’s that kind of peer-to-peer event that physicians are interested in having from pharma.

eMarketer: What are the greatest challenges in getting healthcare providers to use digital media, and what are the challenges in marketing to them online?

Ressi:

For pharma companies, which are among the primary marketers to physicians, the biggest challenge is figuring out how to fit the information they want to share into the physician’s workflow.

Over the past five years, the industry has spent time and money on a range of useful resources, including product websites and service portals that provide product information, answer questions and enable physicians to request samples. We know that most physicians have some sort of interaction with pharma companies but many of these resources don’t have very high traffic. Physicians still don’t know where to go when they need information immediately. So pharma marketers must focus more on letting physicians know that these resources exist.

Search can play a big role in this. Physicians often search for information they need right away. Integrating search is the first way to get into that workflow. Some companies are working with the resources they know physicians already use. For example, physicians use Medscape during the day and Epocrates on their mobile phone so pharma companies can integrate useful information where physicians already are, rather than send them to another site. Epocrates, for instance, is integrating click-to-call or e-mail customer service for some drug companies. And some firms have created an entire physician-facing product site right within Medscape. These are the kinds of things that can help get into that workflow.

The full version of this interview is available here, to eMarketer Total Access clients only. Every day they have access to new interviews with digital marketing leaders and trendsetting entrepreneurs.

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As flash sites like Rue La La and ideeli have diversified from apparel into housewares, beauty and travel, other online businesses have begun staking claims in their own specialties. Why should Gilt Groupe broker dining discounts when culinary brands could capitalize on their own expertise?

Zagat Exclusives, the “original crowd-sourced dining guide,” is the latest restaurant site to jump into the group-buying fray with its September NYC launch. Yelp also began testing daily deals in Sacramento, CA this July, while OpenTable just launched their version, OpenTable Spotlight, earlier this month in Boston and New York.

These are just the established companies branching out. Newcomers InBundles, VillageVines and BlackboardEats—also focused on food deals—are trying to enter this market as well.

Zagat, which will be teaming up with Groupon competitor DealOn, aims to set itself apart by functioning more like a flash sale. Specials will be offered in limited quantities for fixed periods of time with no minimum number of participants. The twist is that the price will lower as more people join. When time runs out, the listed price is what everyone pays.

There’s no secret why these sites, which normally rely on daily emails to get the word out about discounts, are flourishing. According to Valpak 66% of Americans say they’re currently searching more for coupons and discounts than in the past, and 75% will continue this behavior even after the recession ends. Combine that with the fact that across all age ranges, offers sent through email are the best way of getting consumers to try restaurants, and it’s clear that these inbox-filling online sales are paying off.

As more players enter the increasingly saturated dining deals market, more niches are being filled. It’s no longer just half-off falafel, but discounted multicourse tasting menus at Michelin-starred restaurants—that still cost hundreds of dollars. The “foodier” these sites get, the more aware they need to be of public perception and the potential for appearing desperate.

When I recently received an OpenTable message touting a half-off special at Gordon Ramsay at the London, my first thought wasn’t, “Oh, I’d like to eat at the restaurant of that chef who yells on TV.” I already knew this was a restaurant on its last legs and now it had been made obvious. This critical sentiment was consequently echoed on food blogs.

In the more dining-savvy—some would say snobbier—cities, do customers want to be eating in an empty room—or, gasp, with a bunch of bargain-hunters (yes, just like themselves)?

Perhaps. Coupons have lost their nickel-and-diming stigma. A Coupons.com survey conducted in May 2010 found that consumers with household incomes of more than $100,000 were nearly twice as likely to use online coupons than those earning less than $35,000 annually, at 39% vs. 21%.

The question is whether restaurants will stigmatize themselves. A good deal can serve exactly its intended purpose, tapping new audiences and putting bodies in seats. It’s yet to be seen if this approach will translate to repeat business for struggling eateries, though, particularly those with a high price point.

Zagat does offer a statistic that could be key, at least for their new venture: “Zagat surveyors visit the places they vote on over eight times per year on average.” If they can translate this type of loyalty to their Zagat Exclusives users, restaurants should have few worries about getting involved with group buying.

Online search is a fairly standard tool for finding anything from directions to a restaurant to conducting price and feature comparisons on a new refrigerator. So it’s no real surprise that Canadian moms head online to conduct research about potential purchases large and small. And in particular, they go online to learn more about consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands—ingredients, recipes and other stuff—prior to buying.

Research conducted by Google Canada and OTX in March and published in June indicates that 81% of Canadian moms are searching for information before they head to the store. Search is their No. 1 online source, followed by email, maps, retailer websites and social networking sites.

The study “Canadian Moms Click for CPG” surveyed 4,896 women ages 18 to 75 in Canada including 3,806 moms to find that 76% indicated that search engines helped them learn more about consumer packaged goods (CPG). Those items include food items (grocery and fast-food), baby and childcare products, household and personal care brands, appliances and more.

The data for Canadian moms vs. US moms reveals similar patterns, according to Chantal Rossi, industry manager for retail, Google Canada. For example, in the US, 50% of moms expect popular CPG brands to be at the top of the search results page vs. 51% in Canada and new moms tend to be online more frequently. Other similarities include moms preference for hopping online early in the morning and late at night: “Moms are digital snackers, they come online whenever they get a few minutes,” Ross says.

The bottom line? Rossi says the overwhelming majority of Canadian moms are researching online to influence an in-store purchase. “Consumers recognize that CPG brands and retail websites have information online and before they go into the store, they can gather important information.” The research, she says, verifies that moms’ purchase decisions are influenced by information they obtain online before they get into the store. “The shelf might be the first moment of truth, but online is the zero moment of truth,” Ross adds.

The summer of 2010 is emerging as a time of major moves in the UK’s online grocery sector.

In early July, Amazon UK surprised many observers by entering this market, offering 22,000 popular grocery items and household goods. Delivery options include those already familiar to Amazon customers, such as express, super saver and evening rates. Amazon Prime, which provides unlimited free one-day delivery for an annual fee of £49 ($77), can also be used for the grocery service.

Amazon’s move is a clear signal that the internet grocery business is ripe for growth. Another sign is the proliferation of mobile apps and website improvements from leading players. In fact, mobile platforms look set to be a crucial battleground for grocery retailers, as smartphone use continues to rise in the UK.

At the end of July, Waitrose unveiled a new iPhone app and mobile site. The app is free, and can be downloaded to the iPod Touch and iPad as well as the iPhone. The mobile website will showcase in-store offers, and recipes from two celebrity chefs, Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal, who are already associated with the Waitrose brand. Both app and website incorporate location-based technology enabling users to find convenient stores.

Not to be outdone, the retail giant Tesco—which saw £136 million ($217 million) in profit from online sales last year—announced on August 4 that its first fully transactional mobile app would launch on Nokia’s Ovi Store within a week. Registered members of Tesco.com will be able to browse a full list of goods available in store, and update their shopping lists.

As of May 2010, groceries had barely registered on the radar of most mobile phone users in the UK. A YouGov poll for Brandbank found that just 17% of smartphone users said they were likely to buy groceries via their handsets—compared to 26% who said they were likely to purchase clothing or accessories, and 53% who said they were likely to buy CDs, computer games or other physical entertainment products.

But grocery buying via mobile has enormous potential in the UK. The country’s leading grocers hope to boost take-up of their new services with highly visible promotion and word-of-mouth, and clearly expect significant growth in the number of mobile buyers during the next year. As Nic Howell of nma magazine commented on August 5: “When mobile becomes a story about the weekly shop, rather than trendy people becoming mayors of their favorite Soho bars, then it gets interesting.” In turn, mobile purchase of groceries should reinforce ecommerce as a growing habit among UK consumers.

For a current overview of online shopping and buying in the UK, see the eMarketer report “UK B2C Ecommerce: Consolidating the Gains.”

Count Sephora as the latest retailer to offer consumers a complete mobile web experience in advance of the October launch of its iPhone app. The beauty retailer unveiled its mobile shopping effort this week, positioning it as a “Beauty to Go” shopping tool just in time for the back-to-school/fall fashion frenzy.

When I interviewed Julie Bornstein, senior vice president at Sephora Direct, in May, she hinted that the brand was in the throes of planning a major mobile web initiative, saying, “Mobile presents huge opportunities from a retail perspective in-store.”

InsightExpress noted that 14% of US mobile users used their mobile phone in a store to take a picture of an item to send to a friend, while 5% made a purchase using their mobile phone.

The mobile site offers complete access to Beauty Insiders, Sephora’s loyalty program; the ability to purchase items directly from the handset; ratings and reviews; access to past purchase history; shopping lists; news on new products as they hit the shelves; links to Facebook; a GPS store locator; and news on store events.

When Sephora’s iPhone app launches in October, the retailer will debut holiday-oriented gift-giving promotions–one each day, according to Bornstein. “We’ll feature one great product we’re obsessed with under the banner Great Gift Ideas each day,” she said. Also coming: short videos from brand founders about why their brand/product makes a good gift. Using the app’s barcode scanner, shoppers using it in-store “will be able to do a bunch of things around the product—reviews, play the video, add the product to a shopping list,” she said.

Bornstein says she believes the app and the mobile website will appeal to a broad range of beauty shoppers—anywhere from age 20 to 60. The chain plans in-store, catalog and online promotion for the mobile site and app, as well as email to its Beauty Insider database.

Beauty junkies: Start your mobile engines, or at least rev your fingers.