RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 It’s Time to Shine the Light on Direct-to-Consumer Advertising
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 82
OP 85
DO 10.1370/afm.1711
VO 13
IS 1
A1 Tim K. Mackey
A1 Bryan A. Liang
YR 2015
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/13/1/82.abstract
AB Pharmaceutical marketing is undergoing a transition as the business, delivery, and consumption of health care have increasingly become part of a growing digital landscape. Changes in pharmaceutical promotion also coincide with federal “sunshine” regulations newly implemented under the Affordable Care Act that require disclosure of certain marketing and industry payments to physicians. Collectively, these trends could lead to fundamental shifts in physician-directed and direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) that have yet to be adequately identified or explored. In response, we advocate for greater DTCA transparency, especially in the emerging digital forms of DTCA, to complement forthcoming sunshine transparency data. This will allow more robust study and understanding of changes in overall pharmaceutical marketing trends and their impact on health care consumption and behavior. This can also lead to more targeted state and federal policy interventions leveraging existing federal transparency regulations to ensure appropriate marketing, sales, and consumption of pharmaceutical products.