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Orthopedic Surgeons Should Take Journal Ads with a Grain of Salt

Everyone seems to be dealing with information overload these days -- even orthopedic surgeons. The field of orthopedics is constantly changing. New techniques, products, and medicines are available every year. Orthopedic surgeons keep up in many ways, including conferences, books, and medical journals. Many companies place ads in medical journals to advertise their products. Can doctors rely on these ads for information about products that they might use in surgery?

These authors wanted to answer that question. They randomly chose 50 statements of fact from ads in major medical journals. The companies were asked to provide the research that supported the statements. Three orthopedic surgeons then rated the statements and research.

The final tally showed that only 36 percent of the claims were made based on published data; 24 percent of the data had been presented at a conference; another 24 percent was from data on file at the company; and eight percent was not based on a scientific study. (The remaining eight percent did not respond.) In the final ratings, only seven statements (14 percent) were judged to be well supported, while 22 statements (44 percent) were considered to be unsupported.

Obviously, the authors recommend that orthopedic surgeons should be careful of getting information from ads in medical journals. Even ads with citations were likely to present unsupported information. When almost half of the ads make unsupported statements as if they were fact, it is clear that orthopedic surgeons need to take the information with a grain of salt.

References: Timothy Bhattacharyya, MD, et al. The Validity of Claims Made in Orthopaedic Print Advertisements. In The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. July 2003. Vol. 85-A. No. 7. Pp. 1224-1228.

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