Marketing in the Health Sector

The course aims to provide the logic and conceptual tools to understand the recent evolution of sectoral boundaries and the competitive dynamics of the healthcare sector, starting from the strategies and policies adopted by the various public and private subjects that interact with each other, with the ultimate goal of meeting patients' expectations.
The health services sector is quite articulated and interconnected with the dynamics of the pharmaceutical sector, as well as strongly affected by the impact of new technologies not only as regards the management of information flows relating to patients, but also at the level of: research and production of increasingly personalized drugs, thanks to artificial intelligence; methods of providing services, by virtue of telemedicine; or diagnostics and surgery, thanks to immersive technologies.
This is clearly one of the most attractive sectors of activity, as characterized by the most significant rates of growth and innovation, which are, moreover, constant despite the various financial crises. In this context, the entry of new players and the need for increasingly significant investments in new technologies and new skills has increased the level and type of competition, making it essential to be able to develop effective strategies and policies to interact not only with patients (b2c), but also with the different types of professional and technological partners (b2b).
The course therefore intends to offer first of all a framework of the broad healthcare sector, with particular regard to the Italian and European reality, highlighting the main sectors and the most significant competitive dynamics, to then deepen the specificities of the marketing of health services, from a strategic and operational point of view, also through the analysis of concrete cases.

At the end of the course, the student will be able to apply the knowledge and analytical tools learned to:
· Understand the nature of the evolution taking place in the healthcare sector and understand its repercussions on a competitive level, for companies in the various sectors of activity;
· Understand the distinction between strategic and operational marketing, and the relevance of service marketing for its proper implementation in the sector;
· Identify the methodologies for analyzing the final and intermediate demand for a correct definition of any marketing strategy or policy;
· Define and evaluate marketing strategies in terms of positioning, targeting and innovation objectives of a company operating in the health market;
· Structuring a marketing plan in the Healthcare market;
· Recognize the causal links between value for the customer, customer satisfaction, size and quality of market relations and the firm's value.