In our last issue, we identified broadband adoption across all demographic groups as one of the trends that is affecting how online health information seekers utilize the Internet. A number of studies have documented this trend over the last year as you can see from the links on the left. This is important because, with the evolution of Pharmacogenomics, Theranostics and other forms of personalized medicine, life science marketers' ability to reach diverse consumer segments online will become a critical success factor.

In this issue we drill down deeper into the statistics for online access across a variety of demographic groups. Recent evidence suggests that multicultural audiences are closing the Digital Divide in the US although significant new divisions have formed around age, education and high speed access. On the global front, debate rages about how best to close technology and development gaps between countries.

Search engine usage is growing and is now the primary tool by which consumers seek online health information. According to research conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, there are more Americans searching online for health information in a typical day than seeing a doctor. This has been labeled the Dr. Google phenomenon as Google continues to be the dominant search engine.

See our editorial for more information on search strategies.

We hope you found time to attend BIO 2006 this month and we'd love to hear your feedback on the event.