CommonHealth Releases Compelling Results of Independent Large-Scale Study on DTC Advertising

Business Wire, July 19, 2006

PARSIPPANY, N.J. -- CommonHealth (www.commonhealth.com), a WPP Group (NASDAQ/ADR: WPPGY; www.wpp.com) company and the world's leading healthcare-communications network, today announced it filed research with the FDA on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising that challenges many of the assumptions of both academic and public policy critics of DTC.

The study, entitled "DTC Advertising's Influence on Physician-Patient Communication: Results of Observational Linguistic Analysis," was an exhaustive analysis of 440 transcripts of actual provider-patient interactions in community-practice settings. The transcripts were all recorded between 2001 and 2005, and examined the nature of patient medication requests, references to DTC in the dialogue, and the overall nature of the risk-benefit discussion in three therapeutic categories: allergy, dyslipidemia and hypertension. The three areas were chosen to test whether DTC advertising spend (high in both allergy and lipid management, minimal in hypertension) or the nature of the condition (allergy: symptomatic "lifestyle" condition versus hypertension and dyslipidemia: asymptomatic, life-threatening conditions) has a greater observable impact on patterns of provider-patient communication.

The findings of the study were as follows:

--Patient-initiated prescription drug requests are not driven by DTC advertising

--DTC advertising is rarely referenced by patients (0.6% of visits) and never as "I saw/heard this ad and want this prescription drug"

--DTC advertising does not harm the balance of risk-vs.-benefit discussions in observed visits, regardless of DTC spend in the given category

In addition to these findings, the analysis showed that overall risk-benefit discussions were very brief, and the patient was not engaged in meaningful dialogue about treatment preferences, in part related to the time constraints of the office visit itself.

"We know that DTC has an effect on physician-patient interactions because other studies have shown that DTC drives patients into the office and raises awareness of both conditions and medications," said Brad Davidson, Ph.D., a vice president at MBS/Vox and lead researcher for the study. "What our study uncovered is that DTC does not have the negative impact on the actual dialogue that many people allege."

The analysis was conducted by MBS/Vox, a CommonHealth business unit and research-based consultancy, focused solely on the study of physician-patient interactions. MBS/Vox houses the largest-known library of recorded physician-patient visits. These interactions were originally captured for 10 studies looking at specific clinical issues unrelated to DTC within the three aforementioned categories. Because the methodology captures the entire visit as it happens, retrospective analysis of the primary data is possible. The data were collected in a blinded fashion, with participants (both physicians and patients) unaware of the study sponsor or the focus of analysis, and the data collection was conducted in strict accordance with the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act guidelines).

"Ever since we began doing these studies 6 years ago, we've seen an important contrast between what people say they do and what they actually do," said Joe Gattuso, president of MBS/Vox and director of strategic insight and account planning for CommonHealth. "It appears that physicians and patients reporting on what happens in the office visit often overstate or understate certain phenomena. Our physician-patient dialogue studies take the variable of recall away from the equation and report on direct observations of real-world office visits where diagnosis, treatment and adherence are discussed," Mr. Gattuso stated.

"This breakthrough research brings facts into the policy discussions on DTC," said John Kamp, executive director for the Coalition for Healthcare Communication. "These facts will disappoint some who wish to restrict or ban DTC. Others who wish to improve DTC will be both better informed and challenged as they seek to better educate patients and improve the doctor-patient discussions that drive patient compliance with their healthcare regimens," he concluded.

To receive more information about the study, please contact Beth Paulino at CommonHealth.

CommonHealth comprises MBS/Vox, Adient, Altum, Carbon, Conectics, Ferguson, HLS, Noesis, ProCom, Qi, Quantum, Solara and Xchange. The organization also maintains numerous partnerships both within and outside of the WPP Group network of companies.