Business to business (B2B) Is a situation where one business makes a trade deal with another business, whereas business to consumer (B2C) is a case where a business trades products, services, or solutions to the final consumer (Grustam et al., 2017). In B2B, the trading business focusses on marketing their deal to a specific person holding a significant position in the business they are targeting. On the other hand, the B2C markets its services, solutions, or products to the general population who are the consumers.
In the healthcare industry, companies selling products such as medical devices, software, and drugs usually approach health facilities and trade with them directly. This has been the practice for many years. A good example of this is pharmaceutical companies such as Gilead, AstraZeneca, and others who market their drugs and other products in health facilities by targeting ordering practitioners such as doctors and clinicians employed in such facilities.
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Interestingly, the shift is moving more towards the B2C model in these current times as patients are becoming more active in their management plan. In the UK, the NHS is considering restructuring its approach to the care of patients by use of technologies such as mobile applications (McLoughlin, 2015). They plan to come up with an app where a GP can prescribe medications to a patient who will pick it up at a pharmacy rather than them booking an appointment and waiting for hours before being seen. However, this move will work best on patients who have chronic illnesses and are stable, whose main need is a drug refill. McLoughlin (2015) also reports that the app will enable the patients to be able to access their records, enabling them to be more empowered about their health. For this reason, healthcare technology traders are developing applications to be used by such patients, which are an example of B2C utilization. These companies have to consider that they now have to balance between selling their products to both hospitals (B2B) and patients(B2C).
References
Grustam, A. S., Vrijhoef, H., Cordella,, A., Koymans, R., & Severens, J. L. (2017). Care
coordination in a business-to-business and a business-to-consumer model for telemonitoring patients with chronic diseases. International Journal of Care Coordination , 20 (4), 135-147. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053434517747908
McLoughlin, M. (2015). Healthcare technology marketing: How to go from B2B to B2C .
Highland Marketing. https://www.highland-marketing.com/blog/healthcare-technology-marketing-how-to-go-from-b2b-to-b2c-2/
