AOA symposium. Direct-to-consumer marketing in orthopaedic surgery: boon or boondoggle?

It is widely acknowledged by management professionals that the marketing of products and services to the consumers of those products and services is one of the most important functions of any organization. Consumers cannot buy a product or use a service that they are not aware of, so marketing plays a critical role in creating awareness as well as in educating customers about the product or service. By communicating information about their products and services, organizations are increasing the welfare of producers and users. This is accomplished by a producer who sells a product or service to a consumer who can increase his or her quality of life by using the product or service. In health care, the marketing of pharmaceuticals has been widely disseminated and just as widely debated by professionals, consumers, patients, and the regulatory agencies. Supporters have claimed that this increasing prevalence of direct-toconsumer marketing of pharmaceuti*This report is based, in part, on a symposium presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Orthopaedic Association on June 24, 2006, in San Antonio, Texas.

[1]  S. Findlay.  Direct-to-consumer promotion of prescription drugs. Economic implications for patients, payers and providers. , 2001, PharmacoEconomics.

[2]  A. F. Holmer,et al.  Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising builds bridges between patients and physicians. , 1999, JAMA.

[3]  Nih Consensus Panel.  NIH Consensus Statement on total knee replacement December 8-10, 2003. , 2004 .

[4]  M S Wilkes,et al.  Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising: trends, impact, and implications. , 2000, Health affairs.

[5]  J. Dalen,et al.  Clinicians' responses to direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription medications. , 2003, Archives of internal medicine.

[6]  K. Bozic,et al.  An evaluation of information available on the internet regarding minimally invasive hip arthroplasty. , 2006, The Journal of arthroplasty.

[7]  F. Ingelfinger.  Advertising: Informational but Not Educational , 1972 .

[8]  R. Kravitz,et al.  Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising and the public , 1999, Journal of General Internal Medicine.

[9]  L. A. Koman,et al.  Acute Pain Following Musculoskeletal Injuries and Orthopaedic Surgery , 2004 .

[10]  Allen Caldwell,et al.  Panel , 1991, 2021 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications (PerCom).

[11]  Lisa M. Schwartz,et al.  Direct-to-consumer advertisements for prescription drugs: what are Americans being sold? , 2001, The Lancet.

[12]  R. Kravitz,et al.  How does direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) affect prescribing? A survey in primary care environments with and without legal DTCA. , 2003, CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne.

[13]  E M Badley,et al.  Differences between men and women in the rate of use of hip and knee arthroplasty. , 2000, The New England journal of medicine.

[14]  V. Rich.  Personal communication , 1989, Nature.

[15]  Murray Aitken,et al.  A Prescription for Direct Drug Marketing , 2000 .

[16]  Alan Lyles,et al.  Direct marketing of pharmaceuticals to consumers. , 2002, Annual review of public health.

[17]  R. Kravitz,et al.  Direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising, 1989-1998. A content analysis of conditions, targets, inducements, and appeals. , 2000, The Journal of family practice.

[18]  M S Wilkes,et al.  Advertisement-induced prescription drug requests: patients' anticipated reactions to a physician who refuses. , 1999, The Journal of family practice.

[19]  H. Waxman.  Ensuring that consumers receive appropriate information from drug ads: what is the FDA's role? , 2004, Health affairs.

[20]  P. O'Malley,et al.  Unregulated direct-to-consumer marketing and self-referral for screening imaging services: a call to action. , 2004, Archives of internal medicine.

[21]  M. Hollon.  Direct-to-consumer advertising: a haphazard approach to health promotion. , 2005, JAMA.

[22]  T. Bhattacharyya,et al.  The Validity of Claims Made in Orthopaedic Print Advertisements , 2003, The Journal of bone and joint surgery. American volume.

[23]  S M Kurtz,et al.  Economic Burden of Revision Hip and Knee Arthroplasty in Medicare Enrollees , 2006, Clinical orthopaedics and related research.