Advertise in the Medical Records

The title of this editorial might seem absurd — but hear me out. Marketing and advertising are ubiquitous. During day-to-day activities, we routinely encounter television, radio, and newspaper advertisements, ads in social media, billboards, junk mail, and giant banners being pulled behind airplanes. This advertising includes medical advertising. Medical advertising is all around us, including in the journals we read and the meetings we attend. However, there is one place where healthcare providers do not encounter advertisements — the Electronic Health Record (EHR). I am not ready to fully endorse advertising in the medical records, but why is it taboo? The EHR is not sacred. It is not clear what laws might prohibit marketing within the EMR, and there would likely be significant opposition by physicians and others who would view advertising in the EHR as intrusive, obnoxious, and nefarious, and maybe even unethical, but we should be open minded. The EHR is simply a repository of information and a means of communication. We have allowed others to give the EHR much too much importance. It is not nearly as important as the care that we actually deliver.