Evaluating the Quality of Website Information of Private-Practice Clinics Offering Cell Therapies in Japan.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although the safety and effectiveness of stem cell therapies are yet to be proven, recent studies show that such therapies are being advertised with some questionable marketing techniques to effect positive portrayal of the therapies on the webpages of private-practice clinics to sell their therapies worldwide. In such context, those clinics communicate directly with consumers (patients and their family members) via the clinics' websites. Meanwhile, the Health Science Council at the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan has pointed out noncompliance of some local clinics with the provisions concerning medical advertising in the Medical Care Act in the past. However, locally little is known about the current status of those clinics including the quality

SUBMITTER: Kashihara H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4897299 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature