Direct-to-consumer advertising of implantable defibrillators: a shocking development or just keeping pace with the times?

摘要

Turn on your television today and. you might think that you have just opened your pharmacology textbook or Physicians' Desk Reference instead. Names such as Boniva~R, Nexium~R and Cialis~R seem to be heard during television advertisements as frequently as Coca Cola~R, Geico~R and Lucky Charms~R. Different pharmacologic compounds used to treat conditions, such as osteoporosis, erectile dysfunction and seasonal rhinitis, must no longer just compete with each other in rand- omized clinical trials. They need to win the hearts and minds of potential patients in 30-second commercials on Sunday night at 9:00 p.m. in between Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Desperate Housewives. The 'patient' has now become the 'con- sumer'. Direct-to-consumer advertising has become commonplace for the pharmaceutical industry just as it has for the food services, the airline, the hotel and the insurance industries. Now it is the medical device industry's turn. Many Americans have already seen commercials for artificialknees designed especially for women and, recently, the first implantable defibrillator advertisement was broadcast to the general public in the USA.