The Internet has considerably more influence over consumer health decisions and actions than traditional channels like print, TV and radio, according to pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research's latest report, "Health Influence Mapping: Benchmarking the Influence of Various Sources on Consumer Health Actions."

As mobile devices become more advanced, European physicians are turning to them for a number of uses in their professional practice, according to a recent study by Manhattan Research. About half of online European physicians check email on their mobile devices while nearly four in ten search on a mobile web browser.

NuvaRing® and Latisse® are the top pharmaceutical brands in terms of having the highest percentage of overall product website traffic driven by their DTC television advertisements, according to pharmaceutical and healthcare market research company Manhattan Research.

A large-scale study has identified five new genetic loci (points on the genome) associated with the health of the human lung and pulmonary function. Publishing in the latest edition of the journal Nature Genetics, the partly EU-funded researchers explain that their findings shed new light on the molecular basis of lung disease and might lead to better treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma and similar conditions.

A new solution developed by IBM (NYSE: IBM), Novartis and Vodafone with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, is helping to save lives using everyday technology to improve the availability of anti-malarial drugs in remote areas of Tanzania. Called "SMS for Life", the initiative uses a combination of mobile phones, SMS (Short Messaging Service) technologies and intuitive web sites to track and manage the supply of Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy (ACT) drugs and Quinine injectables, both of which are key to reducing the number of deaths from malaria.

While most marketers have accepted that nearly all physicians are online today, the more difficult part is figuring out where to find these physicians on the World Wide Web. Finding the right promotional mix for connecting with physicians can be a challenging proposition, as physicians use third-party sites - such as the WebMD Professional Network, the New England Journal of Medicine, or specialty specific sites - more frequently than they use pharma-owned properties.

On this World AIDS Day we are filled with both hope and concern.
Hope because significant progress has been made towards universal access. New HIV infections have dropped. Fewer children are born with HIV. And more than 4 million people are on treatment.