The next stage of direct to consumer advertising involves medical devices, prominent in cardiology and orthopedics.

A recent survey suggested that 85 percent of orthopedic patients would change surgeons if the surgeon did not provide a specific brand of implant.

The rules governing ads for medical devices are more lax than pharmaceutical advertising. This doesn’t make sense as medical devices can have more far-reaching consequences to the patient.

A cardiologist comments on this, giving ads promoting heart stents as an example:

A specialized medical device such as the Cypher stent requires a very sophisticated medical understanding that few individuals in the lay public could realistically expect to gain from a direct-to-consumer advertising campaign.