In another step toward implementing its new policy on relationships with the drug and medical device industries, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has turned to a Web-based technology to help obtain sample medications for patients.

The UPMC eSample Center will allow physicians to order medication through a "virtual sample closet" developed by MedManage Systems Inc., based in Bothell, Wash.

UPMC began sending letters yesterday describing the new program to its physician offices, outpatient sites, hospital-based clinics and pharmacies. Other letters are being sent to drug manufacturers inviting them to participate.

Plans call for making at least some medications available through the new system around Aug. 1.

On Feb. 15, UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh's Schools of the Health Sciences implemented a new conflicts-of-interest policy. Among other provisions, it banned the common practice of lunches provided to doctors' offices by drug company representatives.

Left unsettled, however, was a new method to replace industry representatives' distribution of medication samples at doctors' offices. Critics contend that approach helps the industry gain access to doctors to influence their behavior.

While a UPMC committee considered recommending a centralized center that could accept and distribute samples, the group soon found that approach would involve regulatory hurdles and significant paperwork, said Kelley Wasicek, project manager for the medical center's drug sample initiative.

The new system, by contrast, is "sort of like shopping online," she said. Doctors will have a user name and password and can select medications that would then be shipped to their offices. They also can access coupons or vouchers that can give patients discounts or temporary supplies of drugs.

Since officials are still recruiting manufacturers to participate, plans call for continuing, at least temporarily, an interim system that could help doctors obtain some sample medications not available through the eSample Center.

That interim system, in place since Feb. 15, allows drug company representatives to visit physician offices and provide medication samples but not other gifts, including meals. Industry representatives also must be invited before they can make visits.

Of 530 practice sites, about 40 percent have opted to maintain samples, though some did not provide them under the former system, Ms. Wasicek said.

Under the system in place before Feb. 15, industry representatives did not need an invitation to pay visits and could also provide food to doctors' offices.

UPMC officials hope to increase the numbers of drugs available through the new online system. Even then, however, industry representatives, if invited, could pay visits to doctors' offices.

Last year, a draft UPMC document had suggested curtailing use of samples, but concerns were raised that that could deny some uninsured or underinsured patients access to needed medication.

Since MedManage charges fees to the pharmaceutical industry for its sampling system, the technology will be provided at no cost to UPMC, said Thomas Quinn, the company's senior vice president for commercialization.

UPMC is the first medical center to adopt the MedManage system, developed about six years ago, Mr. Quinn said. While about 50,000 physicians use the system, most are in practices with no more than six doctors.

With increasing demands on their time, some doctors prefer not to meet directly with industry representatives, he said. Drug companies also are scaling back on expensive, direct contact between their representatives and physicians, he said, and some doctors are in locations that can be difficult to reach.

The company's Web site indicates that its services are "designed to accelerate the sale of prescription drugs" and "allow pharmaceutical companies to apply a proven market strategy -- the use of sample medications to influence physician prescribing behavior -- to achieve broader, deeper and faster market penetration."

"We recognize that samples are part of the promotional budget of pharmaceutical companies," said Dr. Barbara Barnes, UPMC's vice president of sponsored programs, research support and continuing medical education, acknowledging that UPMC learned of MedManage through contacts in the drug industry.

She said that after significant deliberation, officials "have come to the conclusion that the patient benefit outweighs the potential detriment."