STAT+: Cerebral and other telehealth startups face new legal and regulatory challenges over ad models
A potential class action lawsuit against Cerebral raises questions about whether standard online marketing methods violate legal and ethical standards.
A potential class-action lawsuit against troubled digital prescribing startup Cerebral raises crucial questions about whether online marketing methods violate legal and ethical standards — an issue with important implications for dozens of other telehealth companies doing largely the same thing, experts tell STAT.
For years, Cerebral and other telehealth companies have used free tracking technologies known as “pixels” — provided by big technology companies like Google, Meta, and TikTok — to gather data about customers’ behavior on the site, which can then be used to target ads later. While it’s also used by brick-and-mortar health system websites, a growing number of direct-to-consumer telehealth companies with fewer options for in-person marketing, like Hims & Hers and Ro, particularly rely on the technology to attract new customers.
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