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PubMed · 10555495

E-commerce. Point, click, purchase.

Abstract

Many in health care may still be technology-shy, but there are big savings to be found in business-to-business e-commerce. Some experts estimate that electronic purchasing can trim 18 to 45 percent of costs out of the health care supply chain. That could revolutionize the $140 billion supply industry--but only if buyers and sellers can get on the same page. A whole host of companies are springing up to make that link. It won't be easy. "Anyone can do online ordering," says Joseph Miccio of NCI Consulting. "The real challenge for these vendors is to simultaneously connect all the players in the supply chain through a common database."

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BibTeXRIS

M Menduno. 1999. E-commerce. Point, click, purchase.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10555495/

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ACOG Committee Opinion No. 359: commercial enterprises in medical practice.

Increasing numbers of physicians sell and promote both medical and nonmedical products as part of their practices. Physicians always have rendered advice and treatment for a fee, and this practice is appropriate. It is unethical under most circumstances, however, for physicians to sell or promote medical or nonmedical products or services for their financial benefit. The following activities are considered unethical: sale of prescription drugs to be used at home, sale or promotion of nonprescription medicine, sale or promotion of presumptively therapeutic agents that generally are not accepted as part of standard medical practice, sale or promotion of non-health-related items, recruitment of patients or other health care professionals into multilevel marketing arrangements, and sale or promotion of any product in whose sale the physician has a significant financial interest. It is ethical and appropriate, however, to sell products to patients as follows: sale of devices or drugs that require professional administration in the office setting; sale of therapeutic agents, when no other facilities can provide them at reasonable convenience and at reasonable cost; sale of products that clearly are external to the patient-physician relationship, when such a sale would be considered appropriate in an external relationship; and sale of low-cost products for the benefit of community organizations. A rationale is provided for both the prohibited activities and exceptions.

Commerce↗