The heart of the matter I was sitting on the couch halfheartedly watching a football game with my husband and flipping through a magazine when a new commercial caught my attention and made me realize that either the advertising industry or Big Pharma -- or both -- has sunk to a new low. The ad was for the Cypher heart stent and their new slogan is "Life wide open." As in the artery-opening surgery you'll need to obtain one of these medical devices. But, of course, the commercial didn't say that. In fact, if you've never heard of stents, you might have no idea what the ad is even for. The New York Times article I read about this ad campaign after the game called the commercial "mystifyingly vague" and said that although the ad does show a brief glimpse of a stent, "there is no indication of its actual size or how it is implanted." What the ad does focus on is how wonderful you'll supposedly feel without the angina pain the Cypher stent apparently relieves. But for those of you who aren't familiar with these devices, let me explain a little more about them. Heart stents are mesh tubes that look something like chickenwire. They're implanted into your blood vessels to prop them open after any blockages have been cleared by angioplasty. In the case of the Cypher stent, the device is also coated in a drug that is meant to help keep your body from rejecting it. If it sounds like a complicated medical procedure, that's because it is. One that really should come as the result of careful consideration by a doctor, and hopefully as a last resort -- not as the result of a TV commercial some guy sitting on his couch drinking beer and eating buffalo wings saw and thought might help that chest pain he's been noticing lately. And while Cordis, the company that manufactures the Cypher stent, claims that its product is the "Most Studied, Most Used, Most Proven" one on the market, it's not without its share of controversy. In 2006, numerous reports surfaced that Cypher stents (and a similar version called Taxus) may increase the risk of potentially deadly blood clots. Of course, Cordis insists that these warnings are overblown. Even if they are, that doesn't mean doctors should start doling them out left and right. But, unfortunately, advertising them like they're Hot Pockets downplays not only the potential risks involved, but also the seriousness of the procedure required to obtain them. As the New York Times article put it, "the stent story is not easy to tell in 60 minutes, much less 60 seconds." And, in my opinion, any company that tries to sway you with such surface-skimming tactics is one that may not be all that trustworthy to begin with. Source:
"A heart stent maker decides the way to the patients is through the patient," The New York Times (www.nytimes.com), 12/5/07 | 
