"Best Doctor, 100 percent success": Can doctors make such claims under NMC guidelines?
New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has barred doctors from advertising their success rates with illustrative assertions such as "Best doctors", "No.1 Specialist," etc under the new ethical advertising and communication guidelines.
Under the newly released Guidelines on Ethical Advertising and Public Communication by hospitals/medical institutions and Registered Medical Practitioners, NMC said that RMPs "shall not advertise either personal achievements or professional success rates or number of patients treated with illustrative assertions such as "Guaranteed cures", "Best doctors", "No.1 Specialist", "100% success", "painless treatment", "Miracle treatment", "Exclusive cure" or any other unverifiable or exaggerated claims by whatsoever name called."
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the NMC Ethics Board released these guidelines on 06.10.2026 to regulate advertisements and digital communications relating to medical practice and healthcare services in an ethical, truthful, transparent, and responsible manner.
Under Chapter III of these guidelines, NMC has specified the responsibilities and ethical communication standards, especially laying down advertising restrictions and permitted communications for the Registered Medical Practitioners.
NMC has specified in these guidelines that the RMPs-
i. Shall not engage in advertisement/ activities intended to create unnecessary demand for medical procedures, promote unnecessary diagnostics and promote fear-based marketing.
ii. Shall not solicit patients directly or indirectly, promote his/her professional services through self-promotion, engage any third party for marketing medical services, permit the use of their name, image, voice, testimonial or endorsement for promotion of services or any products, participate in promotional campaigns giving an impression of commercialization of medical practice.
iii. Shall not advertise either personal achievements or professional success rates or number of patients treated with illustrative assertions such as "Guaranteed cures", "Best doctors", "No.1 Specialist", "100% success", "painless treatment", "Miracle treatment", "Exclusive cure" or any other unverifiable or exaggerated claims by whatsoever name called.
iv. An RMP shall not give, directly or indirectly, any approval, recommendation, endorsement, certificate, report or statement concerning any drug, medicine, remedy, therapeutic article, apparatus, appliance, medical device, diagnostic product, health product or commercial product for use in advertising or publicity in connection with his/her name, signature, photograph, voice or professional status, whether or not monetary or other consideration is received.
v. Shall not publish cases for promotional purposes, advertise surgical results, display "before and after" photographs, publicize celebrity patients, promote personal success stories unless published strictly for scientific or educational purposes with anonymized patient consent.
vi. Shall not publish any statement that creates unrealistic expectations, misrepresents treatment outcomes, conceals risks, promote unproven therapies, secret remedy or treatment whose composition, scientific basis, safety or efficacy is not adequately established or which is otherwise prohibited under applicable law.
vii. No RMP shall, directly or indirectly, offer, pay, solicit, receive or participate in any commission, rebate, bonus, gift, gratuity, referral fee, lead-generation fee or other consideration in relation to the promotion or advertisement of medical services, where such consideration is connected with the referral, recommendation or procurement of patients, specimens or materials for diagnosis, treatment, surgery or other medical services.
viii. The engagement of advertising agencies, digital marketing agencies, influencers or online platforms shall not be structured in a manner that results in payment or consideration being linked to the procurement or referral of individual patients.
ix. No RMP or hospital/medical institution shall make comparative claims such as "best", "No.1", "leading", "most trusted", "top", "number one", "unmatched" or similar superiority claims unless the claim is objectively verifiable, based on a transparent and independently ascertainable methodology and is otherwise permissible under applicable law.
Provided, any ranking or award relied upon in advertising shall be capable of independent verification, and material conditions, methodology and relevant date, details of award-giving organization or firm shall be disclosed where necessary to avoid misleading the public.
X. No RMP or hospital/medical institution shall use discounts, limited-period offers, contests, coupons, gifts, cashbacks, referral benefits, free procedures or similar inducements in a manner that is likely to encourage unnecessary medical consultation, diagnostic investigation or treatment or otherwise amounts to solicitation of patients.
Any lawful disclosure of charges, packages or fees shall be factual, transparent and not misleading.
xi. No RMP shall use or permit any celebrity, influencer, patient, employee or third party to promote professional services through prohibited testimonials, endorsements or recommendations. Any material commercial relationship in lawful public-health or informational communication shall be transparently disclosed in accordance with applicable law. No RMP or hospital/medical institution shall use a third party as an intermediary to do indirectly what the RMP or institution is prohibited from doing directly.
xii. No RMP or hospital/medical institution shall procure, manipulate or cause any third party to procure or manipulate fake followers, likes, reviews, ratings, testimonials, comments, views or other digital engagement, or manipulate search rankings, visibility or algorithms to create a misleading impression of professional standing.
