CHICAGO - Targeting consumers and saving hospitals millions are the two e-commerce subjects that eHealthcareWorld conference attendees here last month couldn't get enough information about.
Consumers have deep pockets when it comes to purchasing prescriptions, herbs and vitamins. Spending approaches $160 billion annually in the U.S. And given the increasing consumer love-affair with the Internet (43 percent of Internet users turn to the Web for healthcare information) and the growing desire to make healthcare purchases online, Web-based drug stores are expected to surpass the impressive revenue success of online book and CD companies.
The Internet also could save the healthcare industry a bundle in administrative costs by replacing tedious information systems with Web technology. To provide perspective, Russell Ricci, president of IBM Global Healthcare Industry, asked attendees, "How much does it cost to find a chart in a hospital?" The answer is at least $10 per chart, which doesn't include shadow charts and the notes about the chart that doctors tuck in their pockets.
This costly system could be efficiently mainstreamed with Internet solutions.
But the biggest conundrum for Internet healthcare marketers is how to make physicians more Web-friendly. Only 10 percent of physicians could be called Net-enabled today.
One company has found a way to sidestep this problem. Medsite.com appeals to doctors by meeting them where their interests are - finances. Medsite research shows that when doctors go online, they surf at night, primarily to check their investment portfolios. Many doctors check their stocks more often than they check e-mail.
Medsite followed the money trail by launching Medmoney.com, attracting thousands of frequent visits from doctors. Medsite also provides opportunities to purchase more than 2,000 medical supplies online (with immediate plans to add 100,000 more), a free e-mail service for doctors and a medcalendar.
(IBM Global Healthcare Industry, Russell Ricci, 914/499-1900; MedSite.com, 212/253-6913)