The National Medical Commission (NMC) has introduced comprehensive guidelines to regulate advertising and digital communication by hospitals, medical institutions, and registered medical practitioners (RMPs). These rules prohibit self-promotion, misleading reviews, testimonials, celebrity endorsements, and deceptive claims. They also establish protocols for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare promotion.
According to a public notice issued by the NMC, the guidelines aim to preserve the dignity of the medical profession, prevent the commercialisation of healthcare, and protect patients from misleading medical claims. The guidelines seek to ensure that healthcare communication remains informational, ethical, and evidence-based, while aligning hospital advertising practices with professional standards applicable to RMPs.
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The NMC emphasised that the objective behind the ethical advertising rules is to guarantee ethics and transparency in healthcare communication. The notice stated: “These Guidelines are framed to regulate advertisements and digital communications relating to medical practice and healthcare services in an ethical, truthful, transparent and responsible manner. They aim to protect patients and the public from misleading or unsubstantiated claims, safeguard patient privacy and autonomy, and uphold the dignity and integrity of the medical profession.”
The guidelines specifically address the use of social media by RMPs and clinical establishments. The NMC instructed that “RMP/ Clinical Establishments should use social media in the most responsible manner and with the sole intention to balance public dissemination of information with utmost enforcement of patient integrity along with stringent adherence to professional ethics.”
Restrictions on the use of AI for commercial promotion have also been introduced. The guidelines state: “AI-generated promotional campaign for furtherance of commercial interest is prohibited. Any AI-generated promotional content conforming to the provisions of these guidelines, the Regulations, and applicable Clinical Establishment Act and rules framed thereunder/ any other State Act as applicable, shall compulsorily carry the source mark, explicitly stating that the origin of the content is AI. AI-generated or AI-assisted content shall not be used by an RMP or hospital/medical institution to create or disseminate misleading, deceptive or unverifiable representations concerning diagnosis, treatment.”
The NMC has explicitly recognised AI within the guidelines, defining it and including AI-generated promotion within the advertising and communication framework.
The guidelines adopt a broad definition of advertising and communication, encompassing social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Facebook, as well as websites, blogs, podcasts, influencer marketing, digital marketing campaigns, sponsored posts, public interviews, news articles intended for promotion, online healthcare platforms, and audio-visual and digital communication.
Furthermore, the NMC clarified that responsibility for advertising claims cannot be avoided by using third-party promoters or influencers, stating: “Publishing through an influencer doesn’t shift responsibility.”
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