comScore Announces Availability of comScore/ImpactRx Physician Behavioral Measurement(TM) Solution

RESTON, Va. and MT. LAUREL, N.J., Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, and ImpactRx, a pharmaceutical insights company, today announced the availability of the comScore/ImpactRx Physician Behavioral Measurement(TM) solution, the only digital measurement solution that connects physicians' online and mobile behaviors to their actual prescription writing activities. This solution is carefully designed to comply with health privacy laws and regulations, and at no time is patient identifiable information provided by physicians to comScore or ImpactRx. The solution provides pharmaceutical marketers, advertising agencies and site publishers an unmatched view into physicians' use of digital media, helping them optimize their marketing and business strategies.

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"With physicians increasingly utilizing digital media for support in researching and administering effective healthcare, there is a growing need to understand how their use of such media influences their decision-making," said John Mangano, comScore vice president of pharmaceutical marketing solutions. "By directly relating doctors' Internet use to their prescribing behavior, the Physician Behavioral Measurement solution provides the industry with actionable insights that are crucial in this highly competitive market."

Physician Behavioral Measurement Solution Not Subject to Recall Bias
Unlike survey-based methodologies, which are subject to recall bias, the Physician Behavioral Measurement solution uses comScore's proprietary panel-based methodology that allows it to passively observe the actual digital behavior and prescription administration activity of a representative panel of U.S. physicians that have given ImpactRx and comScore explicit permission to track their behavior. This data is free from HIPAA regulated information such as patient-level data. These observed behavioral insights are then supplemented with survey research to help better understand the physicians' attitudes and intentions that influence their behavior.

The Physician Behavioral Measurement solution provides pharmaceutical marketers and agencies with valuable insights into how physicians use the Internet, including what sites they frequent, their level of online engagement and search engine usage, as well as how these behaviors influence their prescription writing activity. Through these insights, marketers and agencies can make more informed decisions when allocating online dollars to effectively target and reach physicians, as well as understand how competing pharmaceutical brands are reaching and engaging with this audience. Publishers benefit from the ability to better quantify their reach and engagement among health care providers in comparison to competing sites, providing them with sophisticated third-party audience data to help prove their value and attract more advertising dollars.

"The ability to look at physicians' behaviors apart from the total Internet audience provides a level of granularity not previously available in the industry," said Richard Altus, CEO of ImpactRx. "The availability of this depth of analysis will raise pharmaceutical marketing to a new level of sophistication and efficiency."

"There have been a lot of self reported online physician studies but we have been looking for a study based on actual online behavior," said Eugene Becker, SVP, director of measurement and analytics at MRM Worldwide. "This is a great leap forward."

About ImpactRx
Founded in October 2000, ImpactRx's physician networks are the source of an unprecedented intelligence capability for tracking the promotional initiatives of the pharmaceutical industry and for measuring their impact on physician prescribing behavior. Based in Mount Laurel, New Jersey, ImpactRx is a private company with investment financing provided by Mediphase Venture Partners (www.mediphaseventure.com), Oxford Bioscience Partners (www.oxbio.com), Merck Capital Ventures and Omega Funds.

About comScore
comScore, Inc. (Nasdaq: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital marketing intelligence. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo.

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