E-Commerce in Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Marketing-Opportunities and Concerns

Abstract There has been a growing emphasis on the use of e-commerce in various business settings. While most of e-commerce practices have been in business-to-business marketing arrangements, the traditional consumer marketing has also been subject to numerous e-commerce applications. One of the recent trends in traditional consumer marketing is relating to those consumers who happen to be actual and or potential patients searching for either a medical service provider or a medical treatment of some sort or even a pharmaceutical product. Accordingly, the field of healthcare is having its share of the e-commerce craze. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of these e-commerce practices in the healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing arena. It is hoped that the issues raised in this article will provide the related parties with added incentives to explore the questionable sides of e-commerce in the field of healthcare.