Healthy Skepticism Library item: 16251

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Electronic Source

Durack L
Medical Director decides to drop the ads
6minutes.com.au 2009 Apr 28
http://www.6minutes.com.au/articles/z1/view.asp?id=478908

Full text:

The maker of Medical Director has bowed to GP pressure to remove advertising from practice software, but has not ruled out the possibility of price hikes.

The strip ads and the full-screen ads will be removed from Medical Director as part of the August 2009 update, says HCN. The company is to remove the advertising as part of a phased withdrawal, much to the delight of organisations including the RACGP and the NPS, who have long been opposed to advertising within clinical software.

Speaking to 6minutes, HCN CEO John Frost said the organisation – a subsidiary of Primary Health Care – had been long considering the move, but had been recently influenced by the concerted effort made in submissions by GP bodies to the Medicines Australia Code of Conduct Review.

Mr Frost claimed that advertising has “been instrumental in creating world-leading and affordable software for doctors, but the user base told us that it was time to change. Doctors are now more likely to share the view of their screen with patients and therefore they don’t want them [patients] believing doctors are influenced by certain pharmaceuticals.”

He said that Medical Director’s costs have continued to rise as a result of various factors including the government’s ongoing commitment to improving health IT. The removal of advertising from the software would be “another significant factor involved in price assessments,” said Mr Frost .

Although he said there are no plans for further increases beyond that which have already been implemented, he said he could not rule out possible price increases in the future.