Marketing medicine.
Medical etiquette has always discouraged advertising. Indeed, the profession as a whole has tended to view the idea of marketing medicine as at best, a trifle infra dig. Maintenance of this attitude has been helped by an ostrich like approach to the realities of private practice, and to the activities of drug companies, which have contributed significantly to our therapeutic abilities. The moves to corporatise and privatise institutions have raised the level of concern of our New Zealand medical profession. It is not self evident that the marketing concept as currently understood by the business community and by politicians is familiar to the medical profession. There must also be at least a level of suspicion that the business and financial world is insufficiently sensitive to the nuances and complexities of health service delivery. This paper will briefly explore those two viewpoints and consider the feasibility of any attempt to marry them.
Mellsop
G
G
Department of Psychological Medicine, Wellington School of Medicine.
D006801:Humans; D008389:Marketing of Health Services; D009520:New Zealand