Purchasing through the internet is perceived as one of the ways to get similar items for a cheaper price and drugs are no exception. With the pending economic slowdown, possibly more people will go online to purchase their medicines. All too often one would come across an abundance of sites offering medicines promising that their prices are the best.
While there are genuine internet pharmacy, consumers will find it very difficult to discern a genuine online pharmacy business from a less scrupulous operation.
On top of that even for genuine internet pharmacy, the very nature of the internet could make promoting true quality use of medicines difficult. For example how does internet pharmacy really get the whole picture of the patient’s health, how would they know about any potential interactions with other medicines the patient is taking? There could well be some reluctance on the part of the consumer to share important health information with an internet pharmacy that they don’t know very well, there might be some aspects of their health they would be reluctant to divulge in that setting.’
Another issue is about the patient getting the information required to properly use the medications. There could of course be written instructions on the internet but you still have to interpret it, and that requires face to face interview or at least direct communication with a patient or carer. There is thus missing an opportunity for meaningful monitoring of the patient by the pharmacist, their medication use and how their condition is responding to that, which is an important additional preventive service that pharmacists usually provide.
The best way to dispense and receive medicines, and deal with patients’ individual issues, and this is advocated in developed pharmacy services overseas, is through face to face contact.
Adapted from Australian Pharmacist Oct 2008
Source: Malaysia Pharmaceutical Society (Monthly report, Vol.6, Issue 9)
While there are genuine internet pharmacy, consumers will find it very difficult to discern a genuine online pharmacy business from a less scrupulous operation.
On top of that even for genuine internet pharmacy, the very nature of the internet could make promoting true quality use of medicines difficult. For example how does internet pharmacy really get the whole picture of the patient’s health, how would they know about any potential interactions with other medicines the patient is taking? There could well be some reluctance on the part of the consumer to share important health information with an internet pharmacy that they don’t know very well, there might be some aspects of their health they would be reluctant to divulge in that setting.’
Another issue is about the patient getting the information required to properly use the medications. There could of course be written instructions on the internet but you still have to interpret it, and that requires face to face interview or at least direct communication with a patient or carer. There is thus missing an opportunity for meaningful monitoring of the patient by the pharmacist, their medication use and how their condition is responding to that, which is an important additional preventive service that pharmacists usually provide.
The best way to dispense and receive medicines, and deal with patients’ individual issues, and this is advocated in developed pharmacy services overseas, is through face to face contact.
Adapted from Australian Pharmacist Oct 2008
Source: Malaysia Pharmaceutical Society (Monthly report, Vol.6, Issue 9)
