Nielsen Launches Healthcare Site Tracker

Nielsen has announced it will shortly begin the syndicated measurement of professional healthcare web sites. The research giant says the move will create a new standard for measuring healthcare professionals' activity on the Internet.

Through the collaboration between Nielsen's PERQ/HCI and Nielsen//NetRatings services, agencies planning online campaigns will be able to compare which sites healthcare professionals visit, how often, and for how long. The firm says that its new service will enable users to view detailed information both for individual health-related sites and across entire healthcare specialties. Online publishers will also be able to use these standard metrics to justify the inclusion of healthcare media in their campaigns.

'The syndicated service will establish a common currency for website activity within the professional healthcare market,' said Kathleen Henderson, General Manager of PERQ/HCI. 'Agencies have been asking us for this type of concrete measurement of website activity on a market basis. We're glad we can deliver the data that agencies and marketers need.'

Results will be delivered over the Internet through Nielsen//NetRatings' browser-based measurement tool that reports market information gathered from tagged sites. Available metrics include unique browsers, page impressions, average page and session duration, reach (among measured sites), frequency of visits and audience duplication across sites.

Sarah Calkin, Sales Director, SiteCensus, Nielsen//NetRatings commented: 'This product will provide results that agencies and pharmaceutical companies can use to understand the online activity of healthcare professionals and implement effective online marketing programs for doctors, patients and consumers.'

The initiative is being driven by NielsenHealth, which was launched earlier in the month to measure patient and physician attitudes, behaviours and needs (www.mrweb.com/drno/news7162.htm ). Data capture will begin tomorrow and data will be available to subscribing agencies, healthcare manufacturers, and media companies in the fourth quarter 2007.

Nielsen PERQ/HCI has reported on advertising in healthcare journals across a variety of healthcare market segments for more than 35 years. Web sites are at www.PERQ-HCI.com , www.nielsen-netratings.com and www.nielsen.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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