There are horror stories of graphic designers in ad agencies being assigned the task of developing disease information for DTC Web sites. Graphic designers generally lack clinical training and an understanding of whether a journal article is a primary reference source. If it is, they lack the experience to evaluate whether the information is accurate. This means that people with inadequate clinical expertise are writing content for Web sites and simply copying from sites that are inaccurate or obsolete. They fail to grasp how to make the information trustworthy, readable, and useful to the consumer.
Pharmaceutical companies have a wonderful window of opportunity right now.
Consumers are searching for credible sources of information, and are trying to weed out the good from the bad. That task is next to impossible for lay people to do on their own. Consumers need to know where to go for information they can trust. Companies should request a copy of the electronic search results with short abstracts. That will help indicate the agency's capability to conduct high-quality drug information searches.