While on my way to a meeting with a prospective client, I came across a couple of hospitals. They reminded me of a few hospital adverts on TV – vernacular television, to be specific. These ads had models (that I recall seeing selling tea, condoms and pressure cookers, among other products) posing as doctors and generally acting as if they care for the aged eye patients who had come to their hospital.
My tweet then was, ‘Aren’t hospitals barred from advertising? Saw an ad for an eye hospital & another for a general hospital on Sun TV. Can docs advertise too?‘
Interesting responses followed.
- fatima2504: Nope. Doctors and Lawyers are barred from Advertising. I read that too
- labnol: I think they’re allowed to advertise. Once saw an hospital ad that said “we hope you’ll never need us but just in case..”
- prolificd: I think they are. You can advertise what services you provide. But no comparison. I think that prescription drugs can’t b advt
- Anita_Lobo: docs can’t advertise. Hospitals can
- prolificd: But I have seen dentist adverts. Handbills too.
- LizaSaha: Apollo also advertises a lot
- technolabsin: what is the span of this advertising ban ? think google ads are being exploited by healthcare professionals
- rohind: Not sure if hospitals can too,
- technolabsin: we have also seen hospitals advertising their health check plans (assorted ones) in print media
- sarmishtha: i don’t think doctors..medicines and hospitals are allowed 2 advertise..they h/w bend rules & do it..#sowrong
- gloliter: but hospitals advertise docs in the garb of by announcing doc appointments
- pradeepaj: docs can advertise as long as they dnt make statements like “Magical remedy” etc in thr communication
- abhilash: I remember seeing in Munich, that close to 2 out of 3 ads in train stations were about doctors! Seemed very odd.
- Anita_Lobo: Hospitals do surrogate advtg aka public interest campaigns
- prolificd: some time ago, they were toying with putting barbershop style rate-lists in Bombay hospitals.
- bluethroat: Q. How do you decide on a doc? On seeing a flashy advert or on someone’s recommendation?
Regardless of laws governing advertising by doctors or hospitals, would doctors engaging about their profession on social networks amount to advertising?
It would amount to marketing, but consider this – doctors are usually chosen by recommendation and not by advertising. They are almost always selected based on some kind of word-of-mouth, unless you happen to be in some sort of grave urgency. So, why not use relevant social media tools to build credibility, help people in his/ her locality and make a mark?
Yes, they may not have much time in their hand, but imagine a pediatrician blogging about common problems in young children as per the season. I also agree that it’d be very area-specific, given how crowded our cities have become and how we choose doctors from our areas for easier access. But a doctor helping people in general online could use that as a strategic advantage over other, similar doctors in is/ her area.
On a bigger scale, hospitals can pull this off far easily given their strength. Know of any hospital marketing their services/ USPs online? Or know any doctor using social media for professional reasons and not just for personal contacts?
This piece – Should hospitals be allowed to advertise – written by a (then) HR trainee in a hospital is detailed enough and explains the pros and cons of allowing advertising for medical professionals/ hospitals.
And this one – Doctors, hospitals can no longer advertise – talks about a state-level diktat against advertising. There’s a line within a quote in this article that says, ‘…doctors cannot publish their photographs, write articles with the intention of luring patients…‘. Would this article-business be restricted to print media alone? How about blogs or social networks?
Related reading: From Rohit Bhargava (Ogilvy) – How doctors are using social media, though it addresses a more D2D (Doctor 2 Doctor!) method that helps doctors build on their professional networks and share opinions/ decisions with other doctors. My thought is from the point of a doctor as a provider of a service (extremely valuable, no doubt, but a service nonetheless) and customer (patient, here). And how the service provider could use social media to reach out to, influence, impress and build on a network of consumers.
But this post, by one of the most popular blogs for healthcare professionals, KevinMD, nails it. It says, “More patients will be searching for doctors and hospitals via search engines, and being active in blogs, Facebook and Twitter allows you to define your online reputation. Going forward, this will be one of the more important reasons why doctors, nurses, and medical institutions should have a robust social media presence“.
The question again – would this be considered advertising and cost the doctor his/ her medical council membership?
Incidentally, today’s issue of The Times of India has a piece in the business page that covers another aspect of this topic – ‘Pharma biggies disclose payments made to doctors‘!
Picture courtesy: van_thanh2910 via Flickr
Updates:
- Dr. K M Cherian seems to be at the forefront in India, when it comes to intelligent use of social media – here’s his blog and twitter profile!