Compliance of orthodontic practice websites with ethical, legal and regulatory advertising obligations

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study was to investigate the degree to which the websites of orthodontists in Australia comply with the regulatory frameworks regarding healthcare advertising.

METHOD

The websites of orthodontist practices in Australia were assessed against Section 133 of the National Law and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)'s guidelines pertaining to the advertising of regulated health services. Website content was assessed in relation to 5 domains regarding the provision of false and misleading information, the use of offers and inducement without clear terms and conditions, the use of patient testimonials, the creation of unrealistic expectation of benefit and the encouragement of the indiscriminate and unnecessary use of health services.

RESULTS

The websites of 166 orthodontist practices and 304 orthodontists satisfying inclusion/exclusion criteria were evaluated. Intra-rater agreement was high, ranging from 0.91 to 0.97. Most websites (80.7%) contravened the Law in one or more domains. The mean number of non-compliant domains per website was 2.2 (95% CI: 1.96 to 2.46). Information that was likely to create unrealistic expectations of orthodontic treatment (74.1%) was the domain most frequently breached with clinical information that only discussed the benefits of treatments contained in 64.5% of websites. Named commercial products were contained within 88.6% of the websites with links to commercial product manufacturers provided by 36.7%.

CONCLUSIONS

Compliance of orthodontist practices in Australia with ethical, legal and regulatory advertising requirements is lacking. Orthodontists must exercise greater diligence in ensuring that the ethical requirements of preserving patient safety are not jeopardised by the advertising of their healthcare services.