No more ‘Guaranteed Cures’: NMC issues new guidelines to curb misleading medical ads on social media

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued comprehensive new ethical guidelines restricting medical practitioners, hospitals, and healthcare facilities from using AI-generated promotional content, misleading claims, and patient testimonials across digital and social media platforms.

Hyderabad: While scrolling through any social media app on your mobile phone, you might have come across medical claims such as ‘best doctors in the city’, ‘guaranteed cures’, ‘100% success’ and ‘painless treatment’, including the AI-generated content for exercises you can do at home to relax a strained or compressed nerve, reduce shoulder pain, etc.

To regulate self-advertising and prevent misleading patient reviews and testimonials by hospitals, medical institutions and registered medical practitioners (RMPs), the National Medical Commission (NMC), the country’s apex regulator of medical education and practice, has issued a new framework which governs the digital communication by medical practitioners and healthcare facilities.

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Through a public notice issued on October 6, 2026, the NMC issued new guidelines framed for Ethical Advertising and Public Communication by Hospitals/Medical Institutions and Registered Medical Practitioners. The new medical advertising framework seeks to preserve the dignity of the medical profession, prevent the commercialisation of healthcare and protect patients from misleading medical claims, while aiming to be “comprehensive, specific and aligned to the needs of the present-day society”.

Prohibition on AI use

As more doctors and medical facilities have started using AI tools to generate promotional media content, including videos and images, the NMC has explicitly restricted the use of AI for commercial promotion.

“AI-generated or Al-assisted content shall not be used by an RMP or hospital/medical institution to create or disseminate misleading, deceptive or unverifiable representations concerning diagnosis, treatment,” it said.

The guidelines apply to almost every way a doctor or hospital can share health-related information online or in public. The framework covers social media, websites, blogs, WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook and other messaging platforms, podcasts and influencer marketing. It also covers digital marketing campaigns, sponsored posts, AI-generated promotions, public interviews, news articles intended for promotion, online healthcare platforms and audio-visual and digital communication.

Patient consent is not enough

Medical establishments are barred from disclosing patients’ treatment details, photographs, videos, medical records, clinical images, testimonials or other related information to advertise their services without explicit patient consent and strict adherence to safeguards.

“Patient consent shall not, by itself, make permissible any testimonial, endorsement, promotional patient story, before-and-after depiction, success claim or other advertising practice that is otherwise prohibited under these Guidelines or applicable law,” it added.

The guidelines, however, permit registered medical practitioners and medical facilities to make use of conventional advertising platforms such as hoardings and billboards to disseminate factual information. Medical practitioners are allowed to participate in health awareness programmes, public health campaigns, academic discussions, and educational content while strictly adhering to non-promotional marketing guidelines.