Australian doctors now have a pharmacy open to them all day every day on the Web. Victoria based myRep is part of eclinic.com.au and provides doctors with the drugs, complimentary healthcare, information and an online shop. The site, which went live in March, has already proved to be a success.

myRep is essentially a portal with content management for the pharmaceutical industry and an e-commerce engine for the doctors. Using the Web site, doctors can access information supplied by the pharmaceutical industry, obtain their pathology reports electronically, select samples of drugs to be sent to them and using the e-commerce gateway buy the drugs they need for their surgery. Access to the site is free, although users must register.

Clinical papers provided on the site are supplied by the pharmaceutical industry, but director of eClinic, Saurabh Mishra explained that this is made very clear to the doctors. Pharmaceutical companies can upload the information to the Web site themselves, but Mr Mishra said currently most were choosing to have the Victorians do it for them, myRep sees itself as a 'permission based marketing' organisation. Pathology reports are traditionally delivered to doctors by courier, but part of the eClinic system enables doctors to have this content delivered to their PC.

Complimentary treatments and drugs from a wide range of companies are available on the site. Mr Mishra explained that doctors can order the drugs they need for their clinic, or request samples which they feel may be of use for patients. A secure e-commerce system enables doctors to make purchases, whilst the delivery of drugs and samples is all carried out by the drugs companies, removing fulfilment demands from myRep. "In Victoria a pharmaceutical company cannot deliver samples to doctors unless the doctor has requested it. This system is extremely useful to doctors, as they like to have samples," Mr Mishra said. He explained that they have noticed a lot of doctors using the system at home at the weekends to catch up on material they wish to read.

eClinic was built by myRep on Cold Fusion technology and they developed the e-commerce gateway themselves, which utilises digital certificates.

Mr Mishra set about creating myRep to build on the relationships the company already had with doctors. "A lot of research was carried out and we looked at other similar services, there are a lot of them in the USA," he said. Mr Mishra found that there was no site that offered transactions. myRep is an independent company, but the Web site has built up relationships with major drug companies including; GlaxSmithKline, Novartis, Bayer and CSL amongst others.