Clickatell (News - Alert), a mobile messaging provider, today announced that Truth On Call selected its messaging solution to poll physicians about industry devices or drugs on behalf of manufacturers, according to a company press release.
Clickatell’s solution will provide “global short messaging service (SMS) delivery, 24/7 live support, short code provisioning and easy-to-use APIs” to deliver its mobile polling service to healthcare providers, according to the press release.
SMS is so important to the healthcare world because it allows physicians to be reached anywhere, anytime, and not be pinned to their desks in order to care for patients. In the case of Truth On Call, it’s used to reach “pre-screened, verified physicians” and ask them multiple response or open-ended questions from device makers or pharmaceutical manufacturers, the media and government, the press release states. Physicians are paid for their responses by the industry and do not have to worry about being barraged with questions, as they only have to answer the amount of questions they want to every month.
According to Health Innovations, a healthcare Web site, there are now more mobile subscribers than landline users, and the site estimates that about seven billion SMS are sent every month. Into this world comes SMS messaging solutions for market research.
Using Clickatell’s SMS messaging solutions, Truth on Call is able to contact a large number of doctors and other healthcare practitioners almost instantly for anything from helping a media representative looking for information for an article, or a healthcare organization needing statistics for outreach during an emergency situation, according to the press release.
SMS has changed the way doctors practice medicine by allowing them to interact more with their patients, review scans and clinical notes while on the go, and pretty much do everything they used to do, except, of course, examine patients, while attending conferences, on vacation or even just out shopping for cereal. Clickatell and Truth On Call are now making it possible for market research to be done this way.
“In the past, healthcare market research was completed via fax, email or phone and could take weeks to complete,” said Rosina Samadani, Ph.D., founder and president of Truth On Call, in the press release. “Clickatell’s broad reach gives our service the potential to connect with healthcare professionals across the globe in a matter of minutes and we’re excited at the future growth possibilities of these markets.”
“Truth On Call is revolutionizing the way the healthcare community interacts, opening up a host of new opportunities for this industry to connect with physicians and other healthcare providers in a way that has not been done before. It is exciting to be a part of such a forward-looking innovation that may impact people’s lives directly,” added Pieter de Villiers, Clickatell CEO, in the press release.
Even the consumer marketplace has gotten into using SMS for polling on everything from what’s your favorite animal to how many people are good at chess in the U.S. Looks like doing market research and many other activities over SMS is here to stay!
Edited by Rich Steeves