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The Internet as a Marketing Tool for the Medical Device
Industry
Global
Internet Healthcare Marketing
The
Internet provides superb opportunities to disseminate
targeted, relevant information and to encourage two-way
communication throughout the world. The Internet is not
only a force for the powerful global marketing of medical
products and services, but more importantly, it can be an
impetus for better-informed patients and physicians, with
improved two-way communication that ultimately results in
better medical care.
A growing
body of surveys on the Internet and its uses in healthcare
confirm what marketers of medical technology products
experience daily: the Web is growing rapidly in importance
and will play an increasing role in educating patients and
physicians about medical products and services.
The
Internet is becoming increasingly global in its reach
- and at a rapid pace. In 1997, the United States
and Canada had about 80% of the Web-user population. By
1999, this figure had dropped to 55%, and projections are
that by 2005, only about 20% of Web users will be in
the United States and Canada, with the remaining 80% in
countries outside of North America.
Permission Marketing on Internet
A technique
known as permission marketing is one effective way to
maximize the value of Internet marketing. As its name
implies, this approach presents marketing materials only
to consumers who have expressed an interest in receiving
them. A typical scenario is one in which healthcare
organizations ask their patients if they would like to
receive medical information on a particular topic. If
permission is granted, the organization places the
individual on an e-mail list and sells that list to a
marketer of a related product or service, who in turn
sends out these targeted messages.
According
to the Industry Standard, 40% of Americans use e-mail, and
there are 333 million e-mail addresses in the United
States today.
FDA, the
Internet, and Medical Devices
In all
of the excitement about the online consumer marketplace
for medical device companies, FDA compliance is a question
that continually arises.
In 2004,
FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH)
issued a draft guidance document dealing with medical
device advertising. This guidance document deals with
consumer-directed broadcast advertising of restricted
devices, and focuses on promotion conducted via telephone,
television, and radio. Despite the fact that the guidance
does not specifically address Internet content, the agency
may well seek to apply it to that medium. According to
Deborah Wolf, regulatory counsel in the CDRH Office of
Compliance and a co-author of the guidance, FDA
regulations generally do not distinguish among audiences.
Medical
device companies are subject to all of the statutes and
rules that apply to consumer advertising and labeling
One major
difference between Web site promotion and broadcast is the
unlimited space on the Internet. There is no need to limit
the information provided to the consumer, as there is with
television or radio.”
“Internet
advertising has the potential to reach many more people
than traditional mass media,”
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