A patient does well, is grateful, and says so. The instinct is to share it, because it is true and because it is the kind of evidence no advertisement can manufacture.

The care needed here is greater than in any other kind of marketing, because the material is confidential information about an identifiable person who is in an unequal relationship with you.

Verbal agreement is not consent

A patient saying "of course, use it" in a consulting room, while feeling grateful and while you are the person who treated them, is not a sound basis for publishing. Consent needs to be specific, informed, recorded, and given without pressure.

Specific means they know exactly what will be published, where, and in what form. "For our marketing" is not specific. "On our website's case studies page and on our Facebook page, with your first name only and no photograph" is.

What proper consent covers

  • Exactly what will be published, ideally shown to them in final form before it goes out.
  • Where it will appear, and for how long.
  • What identifying details are included: name, initials, age, area, photograph, condition.
  • That they may decline with no effect whatsoever on their care, stated explicitly.
  • That they may withdraw later, and how.
  • Signed and dated, and kept.

Ask at the right moment

Not during a consultation, and not by the treating clinician if it can be avoided. A patient asked by the doctor who is about to treat them is not free to say no comfortably. Better that an administrator asks afterwards, in writing, with a clear route to decline.

Combinations identify people

Removing a name is not anonymisation. A rare condition, an age, an area and an occupation together identify someone in a community even with no name attached. Where the story is genuinely unusual, either obtain full consent or do not publish it.

Photographs need separate consent

Including before and after images, which are common in some specialties and carry their own regulatory considerations. Consent for a written quote does not extend to an image, and consent for one image does not extend to others.

Withdrawal has to be real

If a patient asks for their story to come down, it comes down, promptly, from everywhere including social posts. Have a record of where each story was published so this is possible.

The safer alternative

Much of the persuasive power of a patient story can be achieved without a specific patient: describing the kind of problem you commonly treat, the approach you take, and the typical course, in general terms. It is less vivid and it carries none of the risk.

Where you do publish real stories, our own testimonial process asks the patient directly, in writing, with a clear option to decline, precisely so the consent is documented rather than assumed.