Advertising – Consultation (CLOSED)

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario recognizes that we are experiencing unprecedented circumstances in the wake of COVID 19. However, as we move towards creating a “new normal” for the way we work, the CPSO is beginning to resume some of our engagement activities. The feedback you provide on our policies, regulations, by-laws and other initiatives that are in development is essential to our processes, and as such we invite you to participate in this consultation.

The CPSO has developed a new draft Advertising policy capturing expectations for physician advertising that are contained in the General Regulation under the Medicine Act, 1991, and additional expectations of the CPSO, in order to provide one simple, succinct document to assist physicians in understanding their obligations related to advertising.

The draft policy contemplates significantly departing from how the CPSO has regulated advertising practices in the past by explicitly permitting the use of before and after photos or videos in limited circumstances.

Other issues addressed in the draft policy include:

• The parameters of appropriate and inappropriate advertising content,
• Physicians associating with products or services other than their own medical services (for example, physicians who are part of a multidisciplinary practice),
• Directing and targeting prospective patients, and
• How physicians can refer to themselves in their advertising.

A draft Advice to the Profession: Advertising document has also been developed to support the policy. The Advice document provides general guidance and contextual information to help physicians interpret and apply the CPSO’s expectations as set out in the draft policy.

    Read the draft policy and Advice document.

    View the feedback received through our online survey.

    View the feedback received through our online discussion page.

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Have Your Say

We want to hear your thoughts on the draft policy. For example, we are interested to know:

• Does the draft policy provide useful guidance?
• Are there issues not addressed in the draft policy and/or advice document that should be addressed?
• How else could the policy and/or advice document be improved?

The deadline to provide feedback is August 3, 2020. However, we recognize that the current circumstances relating to COVID-19 may make participating in this consultation more difficult. If you are unable to respond to the consultation before the closing date, please let us know and we can accommodate any delays you may be facing in responding. We are committed to making sure that individuals and organizations who wish to respond to this consultation have the ability to do so.

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Next Steps

Comments received during the consultation will be carefully reviewed and used to evaluate the draft policy and Advice to the Profession document and help inform next steps. Final decisions regarding policy revisions are made by CPSO Council.

We value your feedback and thank you for participating in this process.