Abstract:

At present only a handful of studies compare online and traditional qualitative techniques. Strategic Marketing Corporation (SMC) and Itracks International, Inc. (Itracks) conducted an original case study to compare face-to-face focus groups with both asynchronous (bulletin board) and synchronous (chat style) online groups. These groups, comprised of both patients and physicians, discussed the impact of consumer-targeted medical and health information on the physician-patient relationship. The findings from this case study match SMC's anecdotal experiences with face-to-face and online qualitative research and Itracks customer feedback about online studies, as well as the findings from the few other existing comparative studies.