The Application of Information and Communication Technology in the Pharmaceutical Industry in South Africa

摘要

Medical practitioners regularly met with pharmaceutical sales representatives to discuss medical products despite the fact that there are many other sources of information about pharmaceutical products. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the medical practitioners in South Africa perceive and experience the ICT presentation that the professional sales representative uses to detail pharmaceutical products in terms of three independent variables, gender of the medical practitioner, type of practice, and age of medical practitioner. The study is based on a sample size of 370 medical practitioner respondents. The results clearly indicated that the way the ICT presentation is experienced by medical practitioners are influenced by the age of practitioners and by the type of practice. The conclusions are that age groups below 45 years of age are significantly more positive towards ICT presentations than older age groups. Secondly the Specialists evaluate ICT presentations lower than General Practitioners. No evidence was found that gender played an influencing role. Recommendations are that the causes why Specialists evaluate ICT lower than General Practitioners require further investigation and secondly that the Pharmaceutical Companies must develop a strategy aimed at enhancing acceptance of ICT presentations amongst older practitioners.