Correspondence: Brian Smith, Pragmedic Limited 6 Whetstone Close Welwyn Hertfordshire, AL6 0QW UK. Tel: +44 (0)1438 712441; Fax: +44 (0) 1438 712442; e-mail: brian.smith@pragmedic.com Web: www.pragmedic.com

¹is a visiting research fellow at the Open University Business School, Europe's largest. He also runs PragMedic (www.pragmedic.com), a specialist consultancy that helps companies to create strong marketing strategies in Medical Markets. A full back-catalogue of ResearchWatch articles, which select and review the most interesting papers from current management research relevant to medical marketers, plus many other papers concerning medical marketing strategy, can be found on that site.