Medefield
Medefield ReviewÂ
Medefield is a small healthcare research provider specialising in recruiting healthcare professionals to market research activities.Â
How do healthcare surveys work?
New to healthcare survey sites? Here is a quick guide to 10 key steps they take when inviting participants to market research projects.
Healthcare surveys explained in 10 steps
1. Client requests survey participants
A client requests survey participants for a market research project.
2. A target-group is selected
Based on the profiling information you have provided, a sub-set of panelists will be eligible and selected to participate.
3. Participants are invited
Panelists with qualifying profiles will be invited to participate, usually through email invitation or push notification on mobile.
4. Screening of participants
Upon clicking the invitation link, you'll go through a set of screening questions before you are fully qualified to participate.
5. Participants take the survey
As a participant you'll answer a number of questions. The survey could be about anything from consumer brands and entertainment to healthcare and business topics.
6. Your answers are checked
After you have answered all the questions diligently, you'll get a confirmation if your submission has been approved. You'll sometimes need to wait for a researcher to have gone through your submission before you get a confirmation.
7. Your reward is allocated
After the survey, you'll also get a confirmation on the incentive you have earned. The rewards vary from site to site, but is often based on virtual points or simply a cash amount for each survey.
8. Meeting the redemption threshold
Most survey sites don't allow you to withdraw your reward straight away, but will require you to earn a minimum amount before withdrawing your hard earned reward.
9. Filling out your payment information
If you opt to receive your reward through PayPal or bank transfer, remember that your name and address must also match your profile on the survey site.
10. Redeeming your reward
Once you meet the redemption threshold you can withdraw your reward, which is usually in the form of PayPal credits, bank-transfer, Amazon-vouchers, or other types of gift-cards.
Is Medfield a legit survey site?Â
There’s a distinct lack of transparency when it comes to Medefield. The parent company is listed as “Doctor’s Guide Publishing Limited” in the privacy policy, apparently registered in Luxembourg. However, there is no information about any of the people behind the company on the website. A search on Google turns up a listing from Paradise Papers for the entity, as part of the “Paradise Leaks Database“. There is no official LinkedIn page for the company. A few complaints on Better Business Bureau (BBB) mention unsolicited emails:
While we don’t have reason to believe Medefield is trying to scam people, we recommend participants be cautious. Read the privacy policy and terms carefully, and make sure to redeem your reward as soon as possible after participating.
Medefield Spam – any reason for concern?
Depending on your country, the market research industry is subject to strict data privacy regulations under policies such as GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California. Sending spam is unacceptable and could lead to significant penalties for the company involved. Only companies that have received your explicit approval can send you invitations to market research projects. If you suspect that Medefield has sent unsolicited emails without your explicit consent, you should take steps to report the company.
Is Medefield a scam?
While we recommend being cautious when dealing with Medefield, we don’t believe they are trying to scam anyone. It’s free to join their database of participants, and if you participate in their research, you’ll get paid for each engagement. Medefield is also a member of the US-based market research organisation Insight Association (IA) which has specific criteria when it comes to the code of conduct.
What’s their business model?
Their business model is straightforward. They get paid by market research agencies and pharmaceutical companies to recruit healthcare professionals such as physicians to participate in research studies. Each time a physician completes a questionnaire (either online, by post, or by phone), Medefield gets paid. Part of their income is then shared with the research participant as an honorarium.
Is joining Medefield worth it?
Because of a lack of transparency and negative reviews, we would rather recommend one of the leading healthcare research communities. In our directory of healthcare research providers, you’ll find several reliable options well worth signing up for.
Top Rated Healthcare Survey Sites
- Interesting medical topics
- Surveys that match well with the medical niche
- Rewards as promised
- Surveys may not always be mobile-friendly
- This is a long open-ended question that can take some time to answer.
- Screening out too often is not a pleasant experience.
- Physicians can earn extra money
- Participate in the most recent medical developments
- Maintain current knowledge while earning money
- Surveys of various kinds
- Slow cash-out
- The survey interface could be more intuitive
- Lots of verification and screening questions
- Financial incentives
- Professional development
- Flexibility
- Professional healthcare research company
- Time commitment
- Potential conflicts of interests
- Cash payments
- Low payout threshold
- Fair compensation
- Interesting topics
- Hard to qualify
- Infrequent suvey invitaitons
- Time-consuming surveys
- Exclusive panel community for healthcare professionals
- The panel is run by a legit market research company
- Honoraria are much more generous than standard consumer surveys
- Surveys can be done on the go without any commitments
- Survey frequency can be hard to predict
- Respondents can be screened out if not fitting with the exact target-group
- Complex survey topics require deep concentration
- The payout process can take several weeks (for amounts above $100)
