Population-based surveys found that 71% of internet users in Europe and 72% of the online population in the US, looked for health
information at least once in the previous year. These tendencies are
additionally extended by mobile device utilization. However, customers use the
internet today not only for getting health information, yet also to
self-diagnose and acquire different health services or products.
As per an early definition by Fung et al, an online pharmacy is an Internet-based legal or
illegal vendor, which sells medicine and may work as an independent website, an
online part of “brick-and-mortar” pharmacy representing a partnership among
pharmacies. Briefly, an online pharmacy
is a website offering to deliver, dispense or distribute medication on the
internet directly to buyers. The developing market of online pharmacies is
encouraged by the rapid expansion of the internet, the consistently expanding
digital health, the shift towards self-diagnosing from the immediate
doctor-patient relations, consumer experience in online purchases, the
simplicity of mail-order trade, and distance selling.
While online medical consultations are set to be available in
Germany by roughly 2020, the roll-out of pharmacy
dispensing units (PDUs) remains the subject of heated debate. In South
Africa, where 20 million individuals need to manage chronic illnesses and there
is a huge lack of qualified pharmacists, digitalization of the health sector
has already started: In three densely populated districts of Johannesburg, patients
can gather their medication from 16 PDUs situated in four shopping centers.
Around 15,000 people, 70% of whom are women, have effectively taken advantage
of this service since spring 2017.
MACH4, a Germany-based supplier of robotic drug store automation
solutions, and Right E-Pharmacy, a
subsidiary of the South African NGO Right to Care, entered into participation
with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to
make digital pharmacies a reality in South Africa. The project is upheld by
develoPPP.de, a program set up by the German Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
Registered patients can retrieve their medication right at the
dispensing units, which are also equipped with a video link to call a
pharmacist for advice on the dosage and side effects. That service is available
in the country’s eleven official languages and on weekends. It takes roughly
five minutes to dispense the medication, compared with several hours of waiting
time at public health facilities. Patients have issued chip cards that
encourage access to patient and prescription information stored in a cloud
system.
The PDUs not just improve access to medication and expert
advice, yet also the probability that patients take their medicine effectively
and regularly: Patients get an instant text message to remind them of their
next pick-up appointment. The system additionally decreases the probability of
getting to be infected with different diseases in overcrowded waiting rooms or
being stigmatized as an HIV patient.
The PDUs are not at full capacity yet: they could really serve
twice or threefold the number of patients. What's more, that is something worth
being thankful for as the number of people utilizing the high-tech pharmacies
continues to expand each month.
We found, internet usage and online purchase behavior, in
general, will predict the attitude toward online medication purchase and
increase in more online pharmacy customers.
We at EMedStore provides
international award-winning online pharma
applications. If you are looking to expand your pharmacy business, then we can help you
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customers worldwide.
·
Take your first step towards going beyond a
physical shop, and create an online pharmacy store. Reach out to us for a free
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