Web Videos "Substantiate" Expertise

Online, March 4, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Dallas, TX - The Texas Medical Board (TMB) Rules, revised on November 30, 2009, allows physicians and healthcare professionals to market their expertise online under certain guidelines. Many of these healthcare professionals are choosing to provide health information online and see web videos as an increasingly popular way to do this. Moreover, these web videos can help them meet some of the guidelines in the TMB Rules.
According to TMB Rule 164, "advertising may include information disseminated on the Internet or Web... by or at the behest of a physician" or other healthcare professional. The provisions under this rule set out some guidelines for advertising. For example, when a healthcare professional discusses how her services compare to another healthcare professional's services, such discussions need to be "substantiated". In addition, when a physician or healthcare professional claims that he has a "unique or exclusive skill", such claims must also be "substantiated".
TMB Rule 164 sheds little light on what substantiation actually requires. One of the key provisions under the rule dealing with substantiation states that a healthcare professional must base advertising on information in his or her possession that, when produced, would support the claims made in the advertisement. The implication here is that showing-and-telling may be more in line with the guidelines than simply showing or simply telling.
Web videos provide a good medium in which a healthcare professional can show-and-tell in an expert advice platform. In a web video, the healthcare professional can tell potential patients about how her service stacks up to her competitors' and in the same video substantiate her claim by showing these potential patients just what sets her service apart.