Published September 15, 1999
The Web’s next big thing in retail marketing is likely to be the online pharmacy. Americans spend four times more on prescription drugs than books. Book are one of the more successful electronic retail categories. Nearly half of all Internet users search for health information on the Internet (source: Iconoclast).
The prescription drug market is $102,500M in sales annually (National Association of Chain Drug Stores). By 2004, 76 million health-obsessed baby boomers will be over 50, and American pharmacies are expected to fill 4,000 million prescriptions. Embarrassment of asking for certain products at the local drugstore is relieved by buying online.
Soma is the first full-service Internet pharmacy, founded by Thomas Pigott. This site’s offering is health news and an extensive inventory of herbal products and vitamins.
PlanetRx is funded from a $15M distribution deal with America Online. Company executives come from Charles Schwab and Federal Express. Existing customers to Walgreens and RiteAid can refill their prescriptions on the Web. General Nutrition Center site is being prepared.
Amazon.com is buying a 40% stake in the Microsoft-funded company, Drugstore.com. Common products such as toothpaste, razor blades and shampoo can be ordered and sent to your door from Mybasics.com. Former Procter & Gamble CEO Ed Artzt is their director.
Besides competition, electronic pharmacies face endless rules, including mail-order approval from state pharmacy boards. Shipping is not immediate; insurance is just catching up; and privacy of records are challenges to address.
A CBS/New York Times poll: 40% of Americans believe Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) have made health care worse. A second opinion, to our trusted doctor, may come from the patient’s research.
Turning to the Web, 18 million Americans search for their own answers to health questions (Cyber Dialogue). That number is expected to double by 2002. Changes in U.S. health care policies, no doubt, stirs the dissatisfaction motivator.
The shift is influencing your physician’s practice positively. The pros scramble to remain current with medical news. Almost half of physicians in 11 North American, European and Asian countries regularly access the Internet’s vast and easily found medical repositories.
The New England Journal of Medicine is the most-read online medical journal, used by a full third of Internet-connected physicians. Next popular are The Lancet and British Medical Journal and Journal of the American Medical Association.
The joint venture between Aetna U.S. Health and Johns Hopkins University presents 2 million pages of health-related information online.
Doctors also frequent pharmaceutical and medical Web sites: The National Institute of Health; Thrive Online; Center for Disease Control and Prevention; The Mayo Health Oasis; Intelihealth; and Emedicine. Visitors search Medline, The U.S. National Library of Medicine, database of medical information, free on the Web. Expect this trend to grow.
Like it or not, patient’s health records will be online for doctors’ evaluation; next, patients’ health insurance and hospital records. The security issue might raise the public’s demand for this to be delayed or altered.
Net-savvy patients desire greater digital access to their physicians. Researchers encourage physicians to use the Internet more fully to inform and communicate with their patients. While 68% of doctors use e-mail, less than 2% of them use it to communicate with their patients. Of those, only 13% actually find it useful. This too is changing.
Eventually doctor-to-patient diagnosis may be conducted over the Internet if issues of liability, accuracy and privacy can be adequately resolved. Caring, competent and sensitive physicians could not function without a telephone. The Internet is also their indispensable tool.
A study at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston showed fewer patients suffered adverse drug reactions; there were fewer dosage mistakes; and illegible handwriting was nonexistent.
Technology giant Intel Corp. has financially committed to online health care. “We want the industry to recognize that this is the way people are getting health care information,” said Intel Chairman Andy Grove. “We are not trying to get anyone to buy more computers.”
Yet, a growing user base does mean increased PC chip sales. Health care research information is the most popularly compelling reason to use the Internet. “It’s not decreasing the cost of the box, but increasing its perceived value,” said Jim Kearns, of Intel.
“Unfortunately, the industry has a dim view of technology,” said Regina Herzlinger, a professor at Harvard Business School. “It is seen as adding costs without commensurate benefits.” The public image of health insurance and managed-care providers is at the bottom, exceeded only the lowly reputation of tobacco companies. “That has to change,” said Herzlinger.
“Money will drag healthcare into the 21st century,” said Dr. Douglas Stetson, of American Academy of Pediatrics. “By informing patients about their conditions, health care can save itself money. The well-informed go to the doctor only if a major problem arises.”
For health care providers, “They can either participate in this revolution or become outsiders,” said Andy Grove.
What do consumers want? —More control over how they are treated and more convenience in gaining access to care. They want to learn about options of staying healthy or about their chronic illnesses. People have no time. Insurance companies agree that making health care convenient, by way of the Internet, is a significant element to improving health of consumers.
“Consumers are out to take control of their health,” said Robert Levitan of Better Health’s site, iVillage.com. “They did it with their finances and online stocks; now it’s happening with health.”
“Chat rooms represent an opportunity to talk with people who have been there and survived,” said Dr. C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General and now founder and chairman of Empower Health Corp. “We used to think we could reach people with the printed word, and then it was TV,” said Dr. Koop. “The Internet beats them all.”