Is it Ethical to Waste Medical Resources on Sales Promotion and Marketing?
A number of ethical issues have dominated healthcare discourses for a very long time. One of these ethical issues relates to the use of medical resources in sales promotion and marketing. Some schools of thought reason that it is unethical to waste essential resources on marketing instead of utilizing them on prevention and treatment of diseases, while others state that it is ethical because doing so raises awareness about diseases and availability of treatment. Case Study 4 illustrates a situation where the staff of a medical facility is divided over this controversial issue.
In my opinion, use of medical resources in sales and promotion (for private purposes) is not inherently wrong but can become an unethical practice if healthcare organizations conduct it with the aim of making selfish gains at the expense of patients. Healthcare organizations may use medical resources to convince healthy people and make them believe that they are sick. This can be the case especially when for-profit medical facilities sponsor the definition of diseases and promote them to patients and prescribers. Such companies can spend a small amount of resources but make a lot of money by telling people that they are sick. This practice of widening the scope of treatable diseases in order to expand market for healthcare products is unethical.
Ethical issues may arise if the sales promotion and marketing campaigns are meant to lure health people into participating in medical research. The main ethical issue here is that of informed consent. As explained on pages 287-289 of the course text, informed consent is essential in all medical tests involving human beings. However, informed consent may require the hospital to disclose all risks associated with the researches and tests. To avoid liabilities associated with the disclosure, some hospitals encourage people to participate in researches without informing them about the risks. In this case, it is unethical to waste medical resources on sales promotion and marketing campaigns that will entice people to participate in researches and testing without their informed consent.
Another major ethical issue that can arise when medical resources are used in sales promotion and marketing is stigmatization. In the course text, stigmatization is defined as placing a mark of disgrace, infamy or reproach on a person or group (page 291). Such a person or group is usually discredited and disqualified from full social acceptance. This can arise if a medical facility markets a certain medicine and asks people to be screened for the disease. Those who turn out to be positive may be subjected to stigmatization, which is a major ethical issue in healthcare. Therefore, healthcare institutions should not use medical resources in marketing campaigns that will result in stigmatization of patients.
It can be argued that it is unethical to use medical resources in marketing efforts aimed at raising awareness for tests that may result in false negatives or false positives. False positives are results, which indicate that a particular medical condition is present when in the actual sense it is absent. The converse is true (false negatives). False tests have been found to be a major cause of poor medical diagnosis and disease treatment (pages 281-282). The same applies when interpretation of tests is not done correctly. Misleading marketing campaign carry the danger of inducing unnecessary treatment, poor treatment decisions, economic waste and massive opportunity costs that arise when resources are diverted away from needy cases. At a deeper level, such campaigns may help feed unnecessary obsessions with health and thus obscure sociological explanations for provision of health services.
Similarly, ethical issues can arise if the medical campaigns lure patients to engage in actions that may lead to breach of confidential information. The basis for this ethical issue stems from the manner in which certain treatments, medical procedures and researches are marketed to healthcare providers (hospitals, nurses and physicians). The process of marketing new drugs typically begins with extensive market research in which people are asked to participate. Information gained from these trial tests and researches form the basis for further researches and tests. However, the information can be diverted to other uses without due consent, which is breach of confidentiality (pages 293-294).
That notwithstanding, there are situations when real value can be obtained especially when the advertised drug is available through prescriptions provided by health providers. A good example is when marketers exercise constraint in exploiting medical paradigms to their commercial advantages. Exercising constraint can help marketers avoid conflicts of interest, especially when nurses and doctors are prime targets of promotional messages. To this end, it is important for the health care industry to implement policies for self-regulation. This measure can help medical companies, patients and the general public to derive real value even when medical resources are used in sales promotion and campaigns.
For long-term gains and sustained outcomes, medical institutions should endeavor to champion good healthcare programs through ethical sales promotion and marketing policies. It is ethical for hospitals to use modest amounts of medical resources in marketing their products and services so long as the communication is truthful and not deceptive, misleading or discriminatory. Advertisements should not be aimed at enticing patients and health people to seek services unnecessarily. If a particular advertising campaign does not lend itself to an accurate and clear description of expectations of resource utilization, alternative strategies should be selected.
