Everybody seems to have a study today and if they don’t they dig through the web and find some small tiny study that may or may not relate, and sometimes they either somewhat make one up or create one. If you are a regular reader on the web you are seeing this all the time and the lines are getting gray not only for consumers but for doctors too. 
I get a pretty full load of emails with folks sending me information and sometimes I have to read things 2 or 3 times to make what I feel is a good decision on what is good information and helpful and separate that from those that are just marketing. I like to announce potential products, procedures, FDA approvals that I think are useful but darn I am not going to put a study on here about how eating peaches and plums helps with cutting the risk of breast cancer. Yup they had a study for that one and I guess it could rank right up there with the men eating pomegranates for prostate cancer, so folks this is what some want us to believe. As women we get to sit around and eat peaches and plums while the men chow down on pomegranates but I guess we could eat those too and vice versa <grin>. The fact is we know the food is good for us but the studies that are substantiating some of these products are getting pretty strange.
One of the funniest ones I think I can remember was the hemorrhoid medical device, which was not much more than a couple big heavy pieces of duct tape to put your cheeks, I spared that one here. When I get these somewhat obscure studies that come with this stuff, I actually do go look at them and see what the attached information has to say and along with study information there’s usually a hell of a lot of marketing in there too, so even the studies look weird.
Everything you see on the web today is not 100% factual so read up and really check some of this stuff out. Sometimes I will post about a new device and keep in mind I don’t take everyone seriously as they all will not survive; however there have been instances to where something looked weird or obscure and then a year o two later someone does take that technology and brings it back in a totally useful and integrated format, so that happens too. 
What concerns me too is that marketing is de-valuing some good causes and products out there too. We get hounded by consumer products, retail stores and now drug stores and healthcare services. If we keep up at the current rate I feel that it’s going to have a downward trend and drive people nuts to where some of the good ideas and products won’t be able to work. Seniors are getting it and I will use my 87 year old mom and her examples as she’s target for all of this.
Senior Marketing Trends–Dick Van Dyke for Stem Cells, Andy Griffith for Medicare–Is Betty White Next for Birth Control 
Maybe?
CMS showed us Andy Griffith with healthcare but this is no Andy Griffith in these call centers with auto dialing phone numbers and telling here she needs to call Medicare to get one of the new style devices on the market for glucose readings. She couldn’t understand why all of them were asking her to call Medicare! There was no particular product being pushed, but just get a new glucose reader so she could be assured she was getting accurate readings.
Diabetes Police Telephone Solicitation Patrol–4 Calls Today In 2 Hours Mom Asking If There Was A Diabetic in the House
On the other side of the coin we all may know that pharmacists are on Pay for Performance from United Healthcare so now we get help with an aggression we have not seen there before either. Some are jumping over the counter to help you whether you want it or not.
Compliance Police Out In Force for Seniors–Health Plans and Drug Stores Making Phone Calls-Business Models & Caller Behavior Sucks -A Result of Pay for Performance Efforts?
I think everyone is falling a bit off their rocker here as algorithmic marketing comes in bigger force and it will eventually slow down I hope but all these posts about some facility being number one or some other nonsense like that doesn’t do any good any more because they all say they are #1, it’s losing its effect. On top of that you have folks like this that buy and market information to help consumers and the mine and sell data too and can’t even get their own data out there with some accuracy. Who needs them and they just take up space on the web and rack money for a less than what I call substantial service. Let’s find some dead doctors while we are at it and see how they rank with the care they give?
HealthGrades And Other MD Rating and Referral Sites List “Dead Doctors” on Their MD Information Pages And Even Include the Insurance Plans the “Dead Doctors” Honor
As consumers we want good affordable care and all the rest of the guerilla marketing could go away. Nobody really seems to focus on what they really do well anymore and it’s a constant game of one upmanship on the web with so much litter any more with everyone “selling their ass off”. BD
(CNN) -- A weight loss study by Jenny Craig. A survey of sexual health and condom use by Church & Dwight, the company that makes Trojan condoms.
Both have earned attention-grabbing headlines recently and raised questions about what constitutes good research practice.
And they're not the only ones running scientific studies concerning products that they make. Wrigley's has a campaign called Benefits of Chewing based on research regarding gum helping weight management, stress relief and alertness and focus.
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