Here is a case where the glass is either half full or half empty. A new survey finds that 51 percent of adults in the US access some type of information about medicines and health issues on a web site or mobile app that is sponsored by a drugmaker. Among the topics being explored: info about specific conditions, disease management and treatment, and guides for having discussions with doctors.

From there, 43 percent of those who accessed a web site, a tablet or app sponsored by a drugmaker then talked to their healthcare provider about prescription drugs, according to Manhattan Research, a market research firm that queried 6,634 adults last fall. Ironically, the survey was conducted online, yet only half of the respondents go online for prescription drug or health info.

In any event, the survey found that consumers rely more on these portals when they suffer from a chronic condition. For instance, 75 percent of angina patients and 72 percent of bipolar disorder patients tap those resources. Similarly, 68 percent of rheumatoid arthritis patients and 51 percent of people with high blood pressure go online to gather information.

“The bottom line was that, once the consumer is interacting with one of these resources, we saw that they took some kind of action, particularly bringing up prescription information with their doctor,” says Maureen Malloy, a senior healthcare analyst at the market research firm. “For pharma, there’s a strong opportunity to provide more tools to faciltate discussion with doctors.”