title: It's time to shine the light on direct-to-consumer advertising.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Global Health Policy Institute, San Diego, California Department of Anesthesiology, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California Division of Global Public Health, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California Joint Masters Program in Health Policy and Law, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California San Diego Center for Patient Safety, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California tmackey@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Tim K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Mackey
authors.affiliation: Global Health Policy Institute, San Diego, California Joint Masters Program in Health Policy and Law, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California San Diego Center for Patient Safety, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California.
authors.forename: Bryan A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000329:Advertising / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D016265:Conflict of Interest; D030881:Disclosure; D004345:Drug Industry; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008389:Marketing of Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D058991:Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; D010820:Physicians; D014481:United States
keywords: Sunshine Act; conflicts of interest; direct-to-consumer advertising; eHealth; health marketing and promotion; health policy; physician payments