隨著全民健保制度的實施，台灣醫療市場已經處於競爭白熱化的階段，經營不善的醫院將會面臨沒有病人進而倒閉的命運。為了避免經營不善，醫院想要留住病人或開發新病源，可以採取適當的行銷策略；好的行銷策略可以讓民眾知道醫院的優點、好處，推銷院方的醫療資訊給病人，供其作為看診就醫時選擇的考量。同時，成功的行銷策略將有助於滿足醫病雙方的需求，也可以讓醫院達成永續經營的目標。
不論任何產業，在市場供需之間都存在著嚴重的「溝通缺口」，在醫療業亦相同，一方面醫療服務提供者不了解市場的需求，另一方面，病患也不清楚院方能夠提供什麼樣的服務與產品；而促銷推廣（promotion）的實施，就能夠縮減這樣的溝通缺口，在資源、經費有限的前提下，決策支援系統（Decision Support System, DSS）就突顯出其重要性。
本研究將建立一套醫療促銷決策支援系統（Healthcare Promotion Decision Support System, HPDSS），利用2004年國家衛生研究院全民健康保險資料庫，以台南地區的洗腎病患為例，經篩選重大傷病屬於慢性腎衰竭（尿毒症）且必須接受定期透析治療者，即ICD-9-CM 碼為585的病患，分析其個人屬性與洗腎費用的關係。系統雛型開發將以Windows XP作為開發平台，並使用Visual Basic 6.0作為程式語言開發工具，資料庫管理系統則使用Microsoft R 的SQL Server 2000。本系統預期可產生與洗腎病患相關的統計圖表，提供使用者了解洗腎病患的屬性資料。同時，以群集分析（clustering analysis）建立市場區隔，協助醫院主管找出目標市場，再針對目標市場提出促銷模式的建議方案。並且，可以提供模擬分析評估模式進行實施促銷方案的效益分析。

The healthcare market in Taiwan was turned to a competitive market as the implementation of National Health Insurance. Hospitals that ill-administrated were facing the situations of no patients or even totally shut-down. Thus, Hospitals should apply appropriate marketing strategies to retain patients or exploit new customers. The masses will know the advantages of hospitals through the implementation of good marketing strategies. Successful marketing strategies can not only help hospitals to satisfy the needs of both patients and hospitals but make them to achieve the goal of keeping operative forever.
This study will create a Healthcare Promotion Decision Support System (HPDSS) containing the raw data of National Health Insurance Research Database of The National Health Research Institute of Taiwan in 2004. There are useful information about patients with Chronic Renal Failure (ICD-9-CM code is 585) in Tainan. The system will develop in Windows XP platform, use Visual Basic 6.0 for programming tools, and the database management system is Microsoft R SQL Server 2000. The expected result is that: First, HPDSS can display statistics about the dialysis patients to users, and help them to observe the characteristics of patients. Second, the system will establish several market segments from the whole dialysis patient market with clustering analysis methods such as K-means and Self-Organization Map (SOM) to help hospital managers to find out their target market. Third, it can produce suggestive promotion strategies aiming to target market and the cost-benefit analysis after executing promotional strategies. And the last, we will make conclusions and suggestions through establishment and execution of the system.

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