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Compliance

ASCI Compliance for Healthcare Advertising

ASCI's advertising code for healthcare: what gets flagged, how it sits alongside the NMC's 2026 guidelines, and what we audit.

5–8 min read4 sectionsHealthcare-only since 2016

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What ASCI flags in healthcare ads

The Advertising Standards Council of India enforces the ASCI Code on healthcare advertising. Common flags:

  • Before/after images without disclosure
  • "Guaranteed" outcome language
  • Drug brand names in non-Rx-targeted ads
  • Comparative claims without evidence
  • Testimonials presented as typical results

Doctors and hospitals: the NMC rules are stricter

ASCI is self-regulatory and applies to every advertiser. For doctors and hospitals, the NMC's Guidelines on Ethical Advertising (6 Oct 2026) go further: no patient testimonials, no promotional before-and-after images, no success rates or "best" and "No.1" claims unless independently verifiable, and no discounts or free procedures as inducements. Where the two differ, follow the NMC guidelines. Our NMC Guidelines 2026 guide has the detail.

What survives review

  • Factual service descriptions, with risks and side effects disclosed
  • Doctor names, qualifications and SMR/NMR registration numbers
  • Accreditation status, departments, facilities and factual fees
  • Public-health education that does not promote a practice
  • Claims you can substantiate from a document you can produce today

What we ship

  • Pre-launch review of all creative against the ASCI Code and the NMC guidelines
  • Disclaimer and risk copy written for every ad
  • A substantiation file maintained per campaign
  • Annual review of ASCI complaint trends
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The NMC Compliance Handbook 2026 — guide cover

Free executive download

The NMC Compliance Handbook 2026

Every clause of NMC's 6 Oct 2026 advertising guidelines, with checklists and templates.

  • All 12 restrictions in para 8.1, clause by clause
  • The disclosure line every post needs, with templates
  • Channel-by-channel stop / keep guide
  • Penalty ladder and what happens after a complaint

20 pages · In force since 6 Oct 2026: penalties go up to removal from the register

We never share your details

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Why choose us

Why healthcare brands choose us.

Six reasons hospitals, clinics, and doctors pick a healthcare-only firm over a generalist agency.

  • Healthcare-only

    It's all we do. No retail, no fintech — the whole team thinks in patient journeys, clinical trust, and the way people actually choose a doctor.

  • AI-first systems

    Receptionists, WhatsApp triage, and attribution built in-house — we answer patients in seconds and tie every click to a booked appointment.

  • Compliance built-in

    HIPAA-aware handling, ASCI-reviewed creative, and GDPR/DPDP sign-off on every campaign — our standard, not an upcharge or an afterthought.

  • Senior on every account

    The senior who pitched you stays on the engagement. No bait-and-switch to juniors learning on your budget.

  • Measured to the appointment

    Patient-level attribution across calls, forms, and walk-ins. Monthly reports show booked patients — not just clicks and impressions.

  • Receipts, not promises

    We name our clients and show the work. Quarterly reviews with the numbers attached, every cycle.

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Keep going

Adjacent services, problems we’re asked about most often, and the case files that show how we work.

Practical notes & supporting evidence

More detail for your next decision.

A practical reference for this page
  1. Start hereASCI Compliance for Healthcare Advertising

  2. Establish contextUse the published scope and relevant source material

  3. Choose the next stepFollow the linked resource and assign an owner

Putting ASCI Compliance for Healthcare Advertising into practice

Use the ASCI resource to review how an advertising claim is worded and supported. Keep the final creative, the underlying evidence and the approval record together. A changed headline or image can alter the meaning of an approved message, so review the released version as well as the original brief.

Choose the resource that matches your next decision

Begin with the question you need to answer, then choose the most appropriate destination in this collection. A guide explains a method, a checklist supports a repeatable review, a calculator explores assumptions and a case file documents a particular engagement. Reading them as interchangeable resources can create confusion. If you need to brief a supplier, start with the relevant service or framework. If you need to assess evidence, start with the source reports and the limits stated alongside the example.

Use the collection to narrow the investigation rather than adding every possible task to a marketing plan. Identify the stage where progress is blocked: discovery, understanding the service, making contact, arranging an appointment or following up. Choose a resource that addresses that stage and keep a short note of the evidence you need. A focused review is easier to act on than a long list of unrelated recommendations, particularly when clinical approvals and operational changes involve different people.

Apply the material to your own practice

Document the local conditions before adopting an example. Include the service mix, available clinicians, languages, appointment process and existing digital assets. A method used by a hospital network may need to be simplified for a solo practice; a single-clinic process may need explicit location ownership when used by a chain. Keep those adaptations visible in the brief. The resource provides a way to organise the work, while your own records establish whether its assumptions fit.

Assign a person to each next action and define how completion will be checked. Editorial tasks need content and approval ownership, technical tasks need a release review and measurement tasks need a named source account. Keep evidence attached to the relevant decision instead of relying on a general claim that the programme is performing well. Revisit the plan when the service, market or operational capacity changes. The related links on this page let you move from an overview into the detail needed for that next action.