title: Toward a better understanding of the future of the solo medical practitioner in health care industry: a conceptual review.
abstract: Even a brief conceptual review of the current developments in the health care industry indicates that the future of independent medical practitioners is rather challenging. It may be necessary for these parties to pursue proactive and aggressive marketing strategies to be able to compete with the managed care organizations. Accordingly, this paper outlines some of the current trends in health care marketing as they relate to the ongoing changes to which solo medical practitioners need to respond. It is hoped that the review of the issues raised in this paper can provide an initial basis for a better understanding of some of the challenges to come up with more comprehensive and effective strategy decisions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing, School of Business and Public Administration, University of Houston-Clear Lake, TX 77058, USA.
authors.forename: S A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Erdem
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lacombe
mesh_terms: D004465:Economic Competition; D005544:Forecasting; D019981:Health Care Sector; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000191:economics; D008389:Marketing of Health Services / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D011216:Practice Management, Medical / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D011331:Private Practice / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends*; D014481:United States