Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Is this the image you want to portray?


Is anybody else put off by the fact that this newsletter from the American Medical Association takes advertising from drug companies and displays it so prominently at the top of the front page and on the right side of that page, also?

3 comments:

Paul Levy said...

From Facebook:

Mary: It isn't the best image to display...

Mary Ann: Yes, I agree!

Kamala: I agree that it is not the best image to display. Drug companies value drug advertising in medical journals because it works. It is regarded as highly effective by pharmaceutical marketers generating at least $2-5 in revenue per dollar spent, with returns growing in the long term. There is no need to include Drug Company advertising in medical journals. Medical journals should focus on improving patient care by advancing research and education in medicine.

Beverly: Especially when they don't want the doctors to accept $$ from the drug co's; it seems two faced.

Vicky: As a medical "outsider" it doesn't take me the least by surprise. Seems absolutely par for the course.

Paul from Mind Parts said...

Paul, Get an ad blocker, then you won't have to worry.

But, seriously, it's a newspaper for physicians... if they are going to have ads, and why not, then why not ads from pharma? I don't see the issue. Pharma should be allowed to advertise.

I would be more concerned if I saw ads from Nikon. Or Victoria's Secret.

Medical Quack said...

Pharma has a bigger budget for sure than many others in healthcare. It certainly looks like we are relying heavily on advertising to support various areas of healthcare and everyone has an angle. The AMA makes a lot of money selling data that comes from the pharmacy benefit management data bases and they also offer help on medical records to where you can get an AMA approved EHR too, so everyone is becoming a software house too these days on the tech side too.