What exactly is online or internet pharmacy?

A simple question, right? Well, sort of. At its most basic, online pharmacy is just what you would imagine - a drugstore that operates through a website on the internet. Just one more storefront that is moving from a bricks-and-mortar tradition to create a virtual pharmacy where you can order the drugs you need and they will be sent to you by invisible hands to your doorstep.

While that describes the nuts-and-bolts of the process, online pharmacy exists in a very complicated and dynamic "web" of conflicting priorities that include local regulatory environments for pharmacies and pharmacists, the legal implications of cross-border international drug importation by individuals, free trade and patent laws, money laundering, criminal gangs, and the responsibility of the medical establishment to the patient. Mix well with a liberal (or should I say Conservative) dash of politics, and the resulting stew is not one that many patients find palatable.

Online drugstores can provide excellent service with good health information, opportunities for saving a significant amount of money and a friendly secure environment. In fact, internet pharmacies and their cousins, mail-order pharmacies found a niche in the marketplace not just because prices are lower online, but also because these drugstores often provided service that was as good, if not better than regular pharmacies.

Pharmacy is a highly regulated profession, at least in Canada, the United States, western Europe, New Zealand and Australia. And, like many professions, pharmacy often used its stranglehold on the profession's regulatory bodies to ensure a steady supply of patients through their doors while providing mere lip service to highest standards of care.

But we live in a competitive world, and some pharmacists recognized that the customer - or the patient - is much more discriminating now. Patients are taking the time to learn about their health, and they are no longer satisfied with the same old "take two aspirin, and call me in the morning" approach to healthcare that previous generations accepted without a murmur of protest. Patients know too much now to accept that kind of service.

Online pharmacy is stepping up to fill that need for more information, faster service and less cost. But there are growing pains. Traditional pharmacies don't like the increased competition from some of the internet drugstores that are often right next door and familiar - Costco and Wal-mart come to mind. I can remember when I started my career as a drug rep that 95% of the pharmacies I called on still used typewriters to print their labels. Even some of the largest chains in Canada resisted computers for years until they were forced to respond to the marketplace.

Today all pharmacies are computerized. They could not handle the speed of the market or the complexity of adjudicating hundreds of insurance plans without them. Now pharmacies are feeling pressure from outside their own national borders. Like GM running scared from Toyota and Honda, your neighbourhood pharmacy has to compete against online pharmacies based in Canada, Europe, Asia and the south Pacific countries of New Zealand and Australia.

This is neither good or bad. It simply is. Like the buggy whip manufacturer of the 19th century whose business died with the rise of the automobile, the old-fashioned corner drugstore could become a thing of the past. And like the automobile, the decisions you make when choosing an online pharmacy can improve your health and quality of life or make you sicker - medically, legally and financially!