Abstract:

During the Spring and Summer of 1983 Medilink set up a pilot medical market research operation, involving ten London practices, followed by a larger test market of 50 practices. In April 1984 Medilink expanded the panel to be a national panel of 150 GP's and from October 1984 the panel increased further to 200 GP's. Medilink was therefore set up to enable drug companies to monitor continuously General Practitioners' changing attitudes and behaviour with results available in time for drug companies to react quickly with a marketing response. This paper outlines the development of Medilink with particular emphasis on the problems encountered and how they were overcome.