Organ donation: a significant marketing challenge.
Unlike most health care markets, the organ donation market is one where patients are the marketers, prospective donors are the customers, and no payment is allowed in the exchange process. The assumption that altruistic behavior by donors would satisfy the need for organs has proven woefully untrue. As a result, those needing organs have resorted to relying on unwilling or impoverished donors, to having to promote themselves on websites which have achieved success for only small numbers of patients, or to waiting for organs which they may never receive. This remains a still unsolved marketing challenge.
Clarke
Roberta N
RN
Health Sector Management Program, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA. rclarke@bu.edu
D000533:Altruism; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D008389:Marketing of Health Services; D009927:Tissue and Organ Procurement; D014481:United States