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<p>To get ready to navigate the private, cash pay system, the consumer needs to know about the options in order to be informed, and then ask questions before the point of purchase. Informed consent only works when you have time to consider and weigh up all the options.</p> <p>Yet as we’ve already seen, the information available online, especially from companies and increasing the healthcare professionals, is intentionally very limited in detail and scope. This can easily lead to confusion as often the only easy-to-find information about medicine is the <a title="Patient Information or the Summary of Product Characteristics (the SPC)" href="https://www.rpharms.com/development/trainee-pharmacists/product-characteristics-summary#:~:text=A%20Summary%20of%20Product%20Characteristic%20(or%20SmPC)%20is%20a%20monograph,clinical%20parameters%20and%20pharmacological%20properties." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patient Information or the Summary of Product Characteristics (the SPC)</a> from the <a title="Electronic Medicines Compendium" href="https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Electronic Medicines Compendium</a> (both of which can be terrifying reads) or stuff that comes from non-healthcare professional sources. </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Ultimately these are my messages:</strong></p> <ul> <li><strong>For people searching for information about medicines online:</strong> Do your homework but be aware you are only seeing some of the data. Always talk with the experts, even if you have to insist on it.</li> <li><strong>For healthcare providers:</strong> Set time aside to really talk about all the treatment options with potential patients. While there is information online, there is still plenty of myth and error that leads to confusion. It’s very hard to unpick that online ahead of a consultation with you.</li> <li><strong>For the companies and healthcare providers:</strong> Be bolder in providing the best quality information about diseases and conditions as possible. Perhaps it’s time to start asking does the Medicines Act need an update?</li> </ul> <p>Digital everywhere with online healthcare provision around the corner would not have been in the minds of the people who penned original views. <em>With our modern use of online search and the relentless megatrend of pushing more healthcare service provision online, I wonder if the ban on advertising medicines is fit for the future?</em></p> <p> </p>

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