The next stage of direct to consumer advertising involves medical devices, prominent in cardiology and orthopedics.
A recent survey suggested that 85 percent of orthopedic patients would change surgeons if the surgeon did not provide a specific brand of implant.
The rules governing ads for medical devices are more lax than pharmaceutical advertising. This doesn’t make sense as medical devices can have more far-reaching consequences to the patient.
A cardiologist comments on this, giving ads promoting heart stents as an example:
A specialized medical device such as the Cypher stent requires a very sophisticated medical understanding that few individuals in the lay public could realistically expect to gain from a direct-to-consumer advertising campaign.
Related posts:
- The evolution of DTC ads
- Should patients be paid to promote drugs?
- Implantable defibrillators go direct to consumer
- Device DTC ads
- There are some physicians who say DTC ads are a good thing
- Drug-coated stents
- Implantable sensors
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