ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a review of e-marketing in health. It discusses some of the unique attributes of health and pharmaceutical marketing, including examining the some debate over direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs. The chapter explores the evolving role of social networking in health promotion and services, and discusses the quality and policy implications of having a lack of reliable data on health marketing expenditures. It also explores emerging trends, strategies, and future challenges for digital health marketing that loom on the horizon, including an examination of patient engagement portals, prescription drug coupons, health internet domains, and the criminalization of illicit online health marketing. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how rapid changes in the media landscape that are being fueled by digital technologies and media are also changing the dynamics between patients, healthcare providers, and drug manufacturers, and what this could mean for the future of health marketing.
