The Consumer and the Learned Intermediary in Health Care

Abstract

A decade ago, people who manufactured products for therapeutic or diagnostic use in medicine targeted their marketing campaigns only at health professionals. The reasoning was that the use of such products required medical sophistication beyond that found among people without specific medical education and training. A learned intermediary — i.e., a health care professional — reviewed the patient's condition, educated the patient, and made the decisions about diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. During the past five years, the marketing of health care products has begun to bypass the health care professional and aim directly at the consumer. It is now practically . . .