2008 Survey Methodology

At the end of March we e-mailed questionnaires for the Medical Economics 2008 Exclusive Survey to 175,956 MDs and DOs in office-based practice throughout the US. The sample included 98,819 subscribers to various Advanstar-owned publications-Patient Care, Geriatrics, Contemporary Pediatrics, Contemporary Ob/Gyn, and Medical Economics, among others.

The survey also was sent via e-mail to 77,137 physicians from the AMA master list maintained by Direct Medical Data, split among various specialties. A reminder mailing was sent out about a week after the initial e-mail; a second reminder went out a week after that. We received 6,669 usable responses, representing a response rate of 4 percent. The maximum statistical error at the 95 percent confidence level is ± 1.2 percent.