Our top-performing articles explored how media habits shape health decisions across consumer segments, healthcare and pharma ad spending trends, and tech companies’ expanding consumer health AI ambitions. Here’s a look back at the five most popular stories from January through June 2026.

1. Search, social, CTV shape consumers’ health decisions

The trend: Consumers navigate a vast digital landscape for health information, but search, social media, and connected TV (CTV) stand out as the most influential touchpoints for health answers and discovery, per EMARKETER”s January 2026 US Digital Health survey.

Implications for healthcare and pharma brands: Online health information and ads are about more than reach. They propel action, from self-diagnosing and scheduling telehealth appointments to asking doctors about medications they learned about online, per our survey. For brands, that means prioritizing search (and by default, AI visibility) for symptom- and condition-focused queries; aligning social strategy with how consumers actually use platforms for health discovery; and testing condition-targeted CTV/streaming formats.

2. Consumers don’t trust healthcare and pharma ads in any channel or setting

The data: Among consumers who saw a healthcare ad in the past year, search engines and doctors' offices/hospitals are tied as the most trusted ad channels (23% each)—but no channel is trusted by even a quarter of respondents, according to our survey.

Implications for healthcare and pharma marketers: Distrust of healthcare advertising reflects a broader credibility problem with brand messaging rather than any single media channel. While marketers can't solve that overnight, more authentic storytelling from real patients and physicians, along with messaging that goes beyond the trope of unrealistically happy patients transformed by a drug, can improve recall, strengthen brand reputation, and encourage patient-doctor conversations.

3. OpenAI launches ChatGPT Health to analyze user medical data

The trend: OpenAI kicked off a wave of consumer health AI launches in January with ChatGPT Health, elevating its chatbot from a general information resource into a data-driven health assistant. The tool encourages users to upload their medical records to receive personalized health guidance. Microsoft, Perplexity, and Anthropic soon followed with similar offerings.

Implications for AI companies: GenAI for health is the fastest-growing AI use case, per EMARKETER forecasts. But for now, consumers are far more likely to use chatbots for quick health and wellness questions than to share sensitive medical information. To drive even broader adoption, AI platforms will need to earn users' trust by demonstrating they can securely safeguard that data.

4. Pharma prescription drug TV advertising spend reached nearly $6 billion in 2025

The trend: Pharma advertisers spent $5.96 billion on national TV drug advertising in 2025, up 16% YoY, with the largest spending increases in weight loss, mental health, and cancer categories, per iSpot.tv data.

Implications for pharma marketers and agencies: While the FDA continues to step up enforcement of pharma advertising across TV and digital, sweeping rule changes remain unlikely. Marketers will largely maintain linear TV spending, concentrating investments on high-impact disease areas and tentpole events while expanding targeted CTV and digital campaigns to reach and convert audiences more efficiently.

5. Women’s health decisions are influenced by digital media and stage-of-life needs

The trend: Women increasingly use digital channels for health information, but preferences vary by generation. According to CMI Health data provided to EMARKETER, 45% of Gen Z women and 35% of millennials use social media for health information, versus 24% of Gen Xers and 6% of baby boomers. Older women are more likely to use prescription drug websites, with 27% of Gen Xers and 18% of boomers doing so, compared with 15% of Gen Zers and 14% of millennials.

Implications for healthcare and pharma marketers: “Stage of life” is a more meaningful lens than age alone. Health information needs shift significantly across reproductive years, fertility, perimenopause, and menopause, making life stage a more effective framework for messaging and targeting.