Medical Advertisements Target Allegedly Unsuitable Patients

Case Overview

This case involves marketing campaigns geared at individuals that were allegedly unsuitable for robotic surgery. The campaigns consisted of marketing through TV infomercials, mass emails, and phone calls. The information in the commercials exaggerated the benefits that were reflected in the medical literature at the time. In addition, there were no warning or cautionary statements present in any of the advertisements. It was further alleged that the marketing campaign aimed to pique the interest of patients without providing the proper information regarding the risks and dangers inherent to the procedure.

Questions to the Internal Medicine expert and their responses

What is your experience with medical advertisement ethics?

I am the managing director of a full-service advertising agency that represents several large national hospitals and medical groups with their print, digital, and television advertising. As part of this process, I am always cognizant of the FDA, HIPPA, and Stark laws that need to be met in order to run ethical marketing and advertising campaigns for our clients.

What principles and practices should be taken to ensure the public is well informed?

I am interested in reviewing the print and video advertisements in question.

About the expert

This expert has extensive knowledge in the medical advertising field. She graduated with a finance degree from the MBA-modeled Business Honors Program at the University of Texas at Austin. She is a sought-after speaker on marketing strategies in the healthcare industry, and is a contributing writer for Advertising Age, Modern Healthcare, and Physician Magazine. Currently, this expert is the managing director of a full service marketing and advertising agency that specializes in the healthcare industry.