91% of clinicians use reprints to improve patient care

For doctors, getting patient care right can be a case of life or death. They need to stay up to date with the latest research in their field, but that takes time – something that’s in short supply. It would seem logical, then, that doctors would welcome relevant and important medical studies in their inboxes, which they could use when diagnosing and treating patients.

With this in mind, pharmaceutical companies often sponsor and distribute reprints – republished versions of medical studies that doctors can use in their work, which are emailed to them for free.

Elsevier recently carried out an APAC based survey of physicians (download below) to find out whether doctors find these reprints useful, and to what extent reprints impact their work with patients. Carried out in December 2018 and January 2019, the survey asked physicians to share their experience using reprints.

The aim of the research was to understand how primary care physicians and specialists access and use scientific articles in reprint format, and why they choose certain content.

The responses provided insights across care areas: 343 physicians from APAC responded; about 80 percent were medical specialists and 20 percent were general practitioners.

Download the medical reprints infographic