The debate over direct-to-consumer (DTC) screening companies intensi ed recently as Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, sent letters to 20 hospitals on June 19, 2014, urging their leadership to sever business relationships with HealthFair, a prominent DTC screening company. Public Citizen states that HealthFair’s “heavily promoted, community-wide cardiovascular health screening pr...

Although direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements for pharmaceuticals have been appearing in the mass media for 20 years, DTC advertisements for genetic testing have only recently appeared. Advertisements for genetic testing can provide both consumers and physicians with information about test availability in an expanding market. However, 3 factors limit the value and appropriateness of advertis...

INTRODUCTION Over the last few years, many private companies are advertising direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTC GT), mostly with no or only minor clinical utility and validity of tests and without genetic counselling. International professional community does not approve provision of DTC GT and situation in some EU countries has been analysed already. The aim of our study was to analyse cu...

In the July 2006 issue of P&T, I discussed the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s (PhRMA’s) annual review, Pharmaceutical Industry Profile, to give readers an appreciation of how the pharmaceutical industry spends its money.1 Profile 2008 provides a straightforward, “by the numbers” overview of the drug industry.2 Similar to the 2006 review, the 2008 report focuses on how fa...

I N THIS ISSUE OF ARCHIVES, ILLES ET AL 1 PRESENT a descriptive study of the content of a sample of direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing publications, and the findings are disturbing. Their study of 40 newspaper advertisements and 20 brochures from a variety of national and regional sources found that the DTC marketing for the industry of screening computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance ...

This article studies the influence of product groupings on consumer preferences. Specifically, it is proposed that when each product in two groups has an equal chance of a gain, consumers prefer to choose from a group that appears more contagious (e.g., products arranged close together, similarly, or symmetrically). However, when each product in two groups has an equal chance of a loss, consume...

I develop a multi-country multi-industry model of trade that features heterogeneous consumers with non-homothetic preferences. I use the model to quantify the measurement errors in the welfare gains estimates caused by the assumption of a representative consumer (ARC). First, I reduce the world level of all trade costs by 15% and find that ARC overestimates (underestimates) the gains of the poo...

The causes and ramifications of the rise in the consumer debt burden over time have been subject to much debate. This paper first offers a brief overview and analysis of the key economic variables used to evaluate consumer debt levels. The principal focus of the paper, however, is a broad review of the literature on the topic of consumer debt to provide a framework for how to assess recent cred...

Many foods and beverages are developed specifically for children, and must be tested with children. Sensory or consumer tests for children must take into account the range of sensory and cognitive abilities of children from infancy to teen age. This review examines what type of sensory or consumer test may be conducted with children, at what age and for what purpose. The many factors that must ...