HealthCentral Amasses Top Three Online Health Audience; Study Reveals More Consumers Turned to Internet for Health Info Than Their Physician Last Year
ARLINGTON, Va., January 06, 2009/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- HealthCentral (www.HealthCentral.com), the leading collection of online condition-specific consumer health and wellness experiences, today announced that it was identified as one of the top three online consumer health companies, according to the latest consumer health market research and advisory service from Manhattan Research. HealthCentral also announced that its content delivery model resulted in a 75 percent year-over-year increase in usage across its condition-specific health sites.
"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."
The Manhattan Research 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.
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 , Polaris Ventures, Sequoia Capital, The Carlyle Group and Allen & Company.
CONTACT: Krystle Kopacz of HealthCentral, +1-703-302-1067,; or Tim Inthirakoth of InkHouse Media + Marketing,+1-781-916-9090 ext. 805, , for HealthCentral kopacz@thcn.com tim@inkhousePR.com
Web site: http://www.healthcentral.com/
Ticker Symbol: (NASDAQ-NMS:IACI)
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