The pitch arrives by email or WhatsApp, and it is always the same. Page one rankings. A social media calendar. Patient testimonials on video. A number of new patients per month, stated with a confidence no one could earn. What the deck never contains is the document that decides whether any of it is permissible: the code of conduct your registration sits under.
That code is the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002. It predates every channel an agency will sell you, and it is still the operative text. The National Medical Commission notified a replacement in 2023, then held it in abeyance within weeks. As of September 2026 the NMC's own rules index still publishes the 2002 regulations in full, and its page for the 2023 regulations carries no text at all.
So the rules a doctor markets under were written for newspapers and signboards, and are applied to Instagram.
The clause the deck leaves out
Clause 6.1.1 opens with a sentence that does most of the work: "Soliciting of patients directly or indirectly, by a physician, by a group of physicians or by institutions or organisations is unethical."
It keeps going. A physician shall not make use of his or her name as the subject of "any form or manner of advertising or publicity through any mode" of a character that invites attention to the physician's "professional position, skill, qualification, achievements, attainments, specialities, appointments, associations, affiliations or honours". The clause also bars endorsing any drug, device or commercial product in connection with your name, signature or photograph, and bars boasting of cases, operations, cures or remedies.
Read that against a typical clinic Instagram feed. The patient-recovery reel is boasting of cases. The "Top 10 Surgeons in the City" badge is an award inviting attention to attainments. The doctor's photograph over a supplement brand's logo is an endorsement. These are not grey areas. They are the specific things the clause names.
Clause 6.1.2 adds that a self-photograph or publicity material on a letterhead or a consulting-room signboard counts as self advertisement, though anatomical sketches and diagrams do not.
Announcements the code permits
The same clause then lists what a doctor may formally announce in the press: starting practice, a change of type of practice, changing address, a temporary absence from duty, resuming another practice, succeeding to another practice, and a public declaration of charges.
That list is short, and it is the shape of everything a clinic can legitimately publish about itself. New clinic, new address, new timings, doctor away for three weeks, this is what a consultation costs. Notice that fees are on the list: a doctor publishing a fee schedule is doing something the regulations specifically contemplate, which is more than can be said for most of what gets posted.
The signboard test
Clause 7.13 tells you what may go on a signboard: the doctor's name, qualifications obtained from a University or statutory body, titles and the name of the speciality, and the registration number including the State Medical Council under which registered. It adds that "the same should be the contents of his prescription papers", and that it is improper to affix a signboard at a chemist's shop or anywhere the doctor does not work.
Clause 1.4.2 limits the suffixes after your name to recognised degrees and to certificates, diplomas, memberships or honours that confer professional knowledge. A weekend workshop certificate from a device company is not one. Clause 1.4.1 requires your registration number in the clinic and on every prescription, certificate and money receipt.
Together those give you a usable test for any piece of digital content. If a sentence would not be permissible painted on the board outside your door, be careful about publishing it online. "MS (Orthopaedics), knee and shoulder, Reg. No. KMC 12345" passes. "Award-winning knee replacement expert, 5000+ successful surgeries" fails twice over: the award invites attention to honours, the count boasts of cases.
Channels that survive the test
What is left is less glamorous and more durable than the agency plan.
A factual website is the base. Who practises there, their recognised qualifications and registration numbers, what you treat, hours, fees if you choose to declare them, directions, and a way to book. That is close to what clause 6.1.1 lets you announce anyway, so the compliant version and the useful version are the same page. The judgment calls are covered in does your clinic need a website if you're already on a directory.
A Google Business Profile is the second piece, and for most clinics it does more work than the website, since it is where a patient searching from a phone two streets away ends up. Keep it factual, keep the hours true, and stay away from the promotional post formats. The setup rules and the things that get profiles suspended are in our guide to Google Business Profile for doctors.
Patient education content is where a doctor has an honest advantage. An article on what a slipped disc is, when it needs surgery and when it does not, is information. The line is whether the piece is about the condition or about you. If every paragraph ends by pointing at your outcomes, it is publicity inviting attention to your skill, which is what 6.1.1 names.
Reviews are allowed and cannot be bought. Google prohibits incentives of any kind in exchange for a review and prohibits soliciting only the positive ones; clause 6.1.1 sits on top of that, so ask neutrally, after the visit, and never ask for praise.
Referrals are the oldest channel and the most regulated. Clause 6.4.1 forbids giving, soliciting or receiving "any gift, gratuity, commission or bonus in consideration of or return for the referring, recommending or procuring of any patient", and forbids splitting or rebating fees; 6.4.2 extends this to sending specimens for diagnostics. A referral relationship built on a prompt, readable letter back to the referring doctor is permitted and effective. A cut is not, whatever it is called on the invoice.
How to brief an agency without inheriting its risk
If you hire someone, put three lines in the contract. The doctor approves every published sentence before it goes out. No superlatives, rankings, awards, patient photographs or case outcomes, and no fees to third parties per patient acquired. The clinic owns the domain, the Google profile and the social accounts. Then ask for something useful instead of promises: accurate hours across every listing, a site that loads on patchy 4G, a booking link that reaches your real calendar. Nobody can guarantee a search position, and an agency that does is telling you how it treats claims generally.
ExaHealth builds the compliant pieces, not the promotional ones. The clinic website runs on your own domain showing only your name and logo, with hours, services and a booking page that fills the same calendar your front desk uses. Google Business Profile hours and services stay in sync, review requests go out on WhatsApp after a visit, and the review trend is visible over time. Posts for LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook can be managed from the same place. What the software cannot do is decide what is ethical to say. It publishes whatever wording you give it, so the sentences still have to pass the signboard test first, and a borderline case belongs with your State Medical Council, not a vendor.
The doctors who do well here are not the loudest. They are the ones a patient can find, verify and book in under two minutes, with nothing on the page a council would have to ask about. To build the website, profile and booking flow that way from the start, see the ExaHealth features page for doctors.