Pharma Websites and Professionals-Only Information: the Implications for Patient Trust and Autonomy

Background: access to information is critical to a patient's valid exercise of autonomy. one increasingly important source of medical information is the internet. individuals often turn to drug company (pharma) websites to look for drug information.objective: the objective of this study was to determine whether there is information on pharma websites that is embargoed: is there information that is hidden from the patient unless she attests to being a health care provider? we discuss the implications of our findings for health care ethics.methods: we reviewed a convenience sample of 40 pharma websites for professionals-only areas and determined whether access to those areas was restricted,requiring attestation that the user is a health care professional in the united states.results: of the 40 websites reviewed,38 had information that was labeled for health care professionals-only. of these,24 required the user to certify their status as a health care provider before they were able to access this hidden information.conclusions: many pharma websites include information in a professionals-only section. of these,the majority require attestation that the user is a health care professional before they can access the information. this leaves patients with two bad choices: (1) not accessing the information or (2) lying about being a health care professional. both of these outcomes are unacceptable. in the first instance,the patient's access to information is limited,potentially impairing their health and their ability to make reasonable and well-informed decisions. in the second instance,they may be induced to lie in a medical setting. teaching patients to lie may have adverse consequences for the provider-patient relationship.