Imagine you have an amazing office visit with Dr. Wunderbarwho offers the following:

Clearly, Dr. Wunderbar is wonderful.

Problem is there is no Dr. Wunderbar.

But there are plenty of drug websites that offer all this and more using the slickest of graphics, videos, and eye-catching statistics andwithout having to deal with that crowded waiting room, stodgydoctor, and ho-hum degrees on the wall.

Direct-to-consumer marketing of prescription drugs was approved(New Zealand 1981, US 1997, and Brazil 2008 ) for the most part before the internet emerged as the most far-reachingmarketing tool of ourtime. After all, the internet isin our office, home, car, phone, andeven our wristwatch.

It has proven to be a target-rich venue for the pharmaceutical industry, and one they have capitalized on with techniques that are sometimes informative but can also be manipulative, misleading, and even potentially harmful.

Lets look at a few drug websites to see what sort of strategiesare commonly employed and how they can be hazardous to your health.

About a week ago I wrote a story about the only FDA-approved drug to treat a condition called pseudobulbar affect, or PBA. That drug is called Nuedexta and like so many new drugs that pharma companies are heavily invested in it has its own website: http://www.nuedexta.com.

The website is a virtual blueprint for the 5 marketing tools I see most commonly used to hook customers (pharma would likely counter they are 5 tools to educate). Here they are:

The primary goal of these websites is not hard to spot. Theyare clearly trying to expand the pool of people who are eligible tobe diagnosed with the condition their drug treats. The companies will counter that this is simply an attempt to identify the undiagnosed. But, it not only increases the demandfor their drug, but also runs the hugerisk of diagnosing people without the condition. For example, I took the Neudexta quiz and it looks like I may have pseudobulbar affect:

And here are the 7 questions, of which I answered occasionally to all 7 because thats my honest reply. Of note, had I answered rarely to all 7 questions Iwould have scored >13 and still been considered a possible candidate for PBA:

After convincing you that you may have a disease or that you need their medication for the condition youve already been diagnosed with its typical for drug websites to offer a helping hand in paying for their drug.

Ad for type 2 diabetes drug, Farixa (dapagliflozin)

Financial support tabs (or co-pay calculators) are on most drug websites and seem harmlessenough. ButAlan Cassels, a drug policy researcher at the University of Victoria and a regular contributor toour blog, says thats not necessarily the case:

Co-pay or coupon programs have the veneer of charity and corporate philanthropy but they are only giving deals on marginal newer drugs, when there areoften cheaper and more effective generic drugs available like metformin instead of Farixa. Also, once a patient enters one of these programs they become a data point. Youve now established a direct line between the drug company and the patient. Patients can become dependent on that company for their supply of drugs. And the company can turn around and use your data for further marketing, patient reminders, gifts, and other types of largesse.

Cassels goes on to point out that most of these drugs are usually third line treatment options. In other words, clearly not the safest, most affordable, or most effective drugs available.

If a drug isnt worth taking, says Cassels, then making it cheaper doesnt make it any more attractive or worthwhile.

Andas veteran health care journalist Trudy Lieberman wrote on this blog, what on the surface may look like a win-win with patients paying less and drug companies gaining a loyalcustomer actually shieldsus from knowing the true price of the drugs. While a select few patients may see savings, the high cost of the drug will be shifted to someone else.

I cant tell whether this Allergan website for Chronic Dry Eye disease or CDE is incredibly sexy, bizarre, or ingenious.

Its called Eyepowerment and uses a video (soundtrack is the song Bette Davis Eyes popularized by Kim Karnes in 1981) featuring famous women to inform us that: Before We Had Our Voice, We Had Our Eyes. After a parade of recognizable faces were told: Burning, itchy, dry eyes may send the wrong message. These are symptoms of Chronic Dry Eyes.

Were led to believe this is a medical disease when its actually a symptomassociated with some very serious illnesses. Andit affects a lot of people. How many?

Well, in 2014, Allergan said20 million people were affected by CDE. In 2015, it was 25 million people. This year it jumped to 33 million people. And one ophthalmologist (who in 2015 made over $33,000 consulting for Allergan and other companies) claims over 60 million people worldwide may suffer from CDE.

Drug companies have a business to run. So whats the matter with using these 5 common strategies to reach consumers? Lets answer that question with these questions:

These websites are high budget and very sophisticated. They can be visually stunning and when you combine that with the effective tactics mentioned above they have tremendous potential to influence both medical opinion and health behavior. All the more reason that we as consumers need to stay wary of both their intent and content.

Why? Because these sites can be hazardous to your health just ask your doctor.

With the cost of medications approaching stratospheric levels, criticisms of the drug industry have been

In December the Chicago Tribune published an expos, the third in a three-part series on

Last week the FDA approved two more pricey new drugs labeled breakthroughs by some news

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The anatomy of a drug website: 5 pharma tactics to be wary of - HealthNewsReview.org