Medscape
Medscape Surveys Review
Medscape is a leading community of medical industry practitioners, such as dentists, optometrists, doctors and nurses, who participate in market research. The original Medscape was launched in 1996. It was an online medical directory that offered free clinical information. In the years that followed, Medscape grew in size, becoming one of the largest healthcare portals in the United States. This review is primarily about Medscape as a facilitator of market research surveys without going too deep into the main Healthcare portal.
Andrew: Andrew is one of our reviewers who’s been with HuginX the longest. With a background in membership support at one of the largest survey companies, Andrew has a lot of inside knowledge of the Market Research industry and has helped us refine our reviewing criteria. When Andrew is not working with reviews, he likes to go hiking with his dog Charlie.
What is Medscape?
Medscape is a website and app that provides various resources for healthcare professionals, including news, articles, and educational content, as well as a platform for continuing medical education (CME). It is owned by WebMD and operated by WebMD Professional Services.
The Medscape website and app offer a wide range of content, including:
- News and articles: Medscape provides breaking news, in-depth articles, and expert opinions on a variety of healthcare topics.
- Reference tools: Medscape offers a variety of reference tools, such as drug information and medical calculators, to help healthcare professionals make informed decisions.
- Continuing Medical Education (CME): Medscape offers CME courses and activities, allowing healthcare professionals to earn continuing education credits and stay current in their field.
- Medscape Consult: Medscape Consult is a platform for physicians to discuss and share cases and get a second opinion from other physicians.
- Medscape Business of Medicine: A section of Medscape that provides insights and advice for physicians on the business side of medicine, such as practice management, healthcare policy, and reimbursement.
Who can join Medscape surveys?
Medscape’s surveys are only intended for healthcare professionals, and you’ll need to undergo a rigorous screening process to identify yourself before getting accepted to their panel. If you’re already a member of the Medscape healthcare portal, you can join the panel with the same username and password or sign up directly with the panel without going through the main healthcare portal.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.
What type of surveys will I be invited to?
You’ll be invited to surveys matching your medical profession and practice line. Most studies on medical topics are conducted by 3d party pharmaceutical companies and market research agencies. In this way, Medscape is getting paid as a facilitator of access to physicians, and as a respondent, you’ll get a share of their income in the form of an honorarium. If you qualify and complete the entire survey, you receive compensation within 4-6 weeks of the survey closing. In the United States, you will receive an electronic Amazon.com gift code for your time; outside the US, you will receive an electronic MasterCard or Visa gift card.Â
Supplemental income for physicians
Online Surveys for physicians can pay up to $300 per survey depending on your medical speciality, the surveying healthcare or pharmaceutical organization, the mode of the survey, and whether it is a micro survey or an interview. Remuneration for medical surveys does vary a lot. It also depends on survey length, the company fielding the survey, difficulty finding the targeted group of physician respondents, and other factors.
Physicians in specialities with a lot of drug development (e.g., oncology) will have the most opportunities for well-paid medical surveys.
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)
A rough estimate is that you can expect to receive at least $1-2 per minute of your time. The best medical surveys surpass this. Any medical survey paying less than this is probably not worth your time unless you’re a student or bored and want some extra beer money. Most medical surveys will take 5-10 minutes to complete, and you will need online access.
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