Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS) Intersearch, a market research company, has partnered with ePocrates, a handheld network of physicians, to conduct online healthcare research on verified physicians that have opted-in to participate in web-based surveys.

The companies said this relationship with ePocrates allows TNS Intersearch to recruit from over 71,000 ePocrates physicians and tens of thousands of other healthcare processionals who have opted into the ePocrates Honors program, which enables participants to earn honoraria for engaging in various activities including market research. "Having access to such a large group of opted-in physicians enables our clients to benefit from the speed of the Internet and allows us to reliably complete web-based studies, even among small, hard to reach specialty populations" says Michael Rosenberg, Executive VP of TNS Intersearch.

According to ePocrates, its network consists of over 622,000 healthcare professionals and more than 288,000 physicians who use the ePocrates Rx handheld drug reference. The company said the ePocrates network provides physicians using Palm OS compatible handheld devices with quick point-of-care access to critical drug information, such as dosing, drug interactions and contraindications.

The company said the network includes physicians across all specialties, with a 40% penetration among cardiologists, 51% among oncologists, 33% among internists and 35% among gastroenterologists.