Australian Doctor Australian Doctor 28th July 2017 | Page 10

News Review
A billboard from the Advanced Medical Institute
spruiking treatments for erectile dysfunction in 2009.
Compounding
Why do some
medical clinics
survive despite
condemnation
from doctors?
Australian
Doctor
investigates.
T
THE ad for the clinic said, “It’s not
all about sex, it’s about being the
man you want to be.”
So Australian Doctor rings up
for a free phone consult to find out
about being the man it wants to be.
The young man on the phone
tells us all we have to do is get a
blood test. “So we know your full
hormone profile and where your
deficiencies are.
“It’s a treatment to allow you to
reproduce high volumes of your
10
| Australian Doctor | 28 July 2017
own testosterone. It’s not syn-
thetic testosterone; it’s just getting
the system going with dramatic
changes in energy levels, sex drive,
sex function.
“It decreases body fat. It’s great
for moods, sleeping patterns and
that type of stuff as well.”
How much for this existential
transformation?
“It’s normally around $4000 for
12 months. We’re doing a promo-
tion offer available to the public
this week which is 50% off — so
it’s only $2000 over the course of
12 months. It’s a great deal.”
Rise of commercial medicine
This clinic appears to be the latest
in a long line of commercial medi-
cal ventures rooted in what has
become a highly evolved business
model.
The model works something like
this: First, identify a target market
— say people with sexual dysfunc-
tion or weight problems or prema-
ture hair loss.
Next, advertise your therapeutic
www.australiandoctor.com.au
‘COMPOUND TREATMENTS ... HAVE THE
ADDED BONUS THAT THEY ESCAPE THE SAME
REGULATION APPLIED TO MAINSTREAM DRUG
TREATMENTS.’
— Dr Ken Harvey, Monash University
solution in local newspapers, on
billboards, maybe on TV or even
on the back of supermarket dock-
ets.
Encourage your potential patient
to ring a hotline number, where
they will be put through to a sales
person to discuss the treatment.
If the patient’s keen, transfer
them while they are on the phone
to speak to a real doctor you
employ to prescribe your wonder
treatment.
Then put them back to the sales
team for those all-important pay-
ment details.
Sound familiar? It is important
to point out there is nothing ille-
gal in this. The set-up is legitimate
— although it is true to say some
clinics have ended up flirting with
the numerous regulators meant to
keep healthcare on the straight and
narrow.
The most famed exponent of
this business model has been the