Online Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Stem Cell Therapy for Musculoskeletal Injury and Disease

Abstract

Nearly all practices failed to accurately represent the clinical efficacy of SCT in DTC advertising. While practices associated with an orthopaedic surgeon were less likely to provide misinformation, the majority of all web sites contained some type of misinformation, ranging from errors in the basic science of stem cells to outright false and misleading claims of their clinical effectiveness.