Is your marketing NMC-compliant?

Yes. We work to IMC Regulation 6.1 and the NMC Ethics and Medical Registration Board advertising and public communication guidelines issued on 6 October 2026. Claims are honest, creative is compliant, and you receive an SOP your team can follow. We position ourselves as the compliance authority, not a risk to it.

What changed with the NMC guidelines of October 2026?

The NMC now spells out what clinic marketing may not do: patient or doctor testimonials, before-and-after promotion, superlatives such as best or number one, guarantees, discounts and offers, fake reviews or ranking manipulation, AI-generated promotional campaigns, and any payment to an agency or influencer linked to patient procurement. Repeat violations can suspend a registration. Our retainers are flat fees, never per lead, every creative is checked before it goes live, and we audit existing marketing against the guidelines as a one-time project.

Do you guarantee a specific number of new patients?

No, and you should be cautious of any healthcare agency that does. We build the systems that earn trust and visibility over time. We share what past deployments have achieved, framed honestly, never as a promise.

What does the free audit include?

A 15-minute call, then a short written read of your Google presence, social, reviews, website, ad spend and how AI answers describe your clinic, with a prioritised list of quick wins. There is no pitch deck and no obligation.

Do you work with clinics or doctors outside India?

No. We work with clinics and individual healthcare professionals in India only, dentists, doctors, consultants and allied practitioners alike, so our compliance knowledge and local search expertise stay sharp.

How is pricing structured?

The free audit costs nothing. The Clinic Growth Consultation, two calls and a written 90-day plan, is a flat ₹9,999 and is credited against your first retainer month. Monthly bundles run from Foundation at ₹19,500 to Catalyst from ₹85,000 per month, and every module can be bought on its own from the rate card on the pricing page. One-time projects such as the Full Digital Audit start at ₹12,000. Careflow CMS is our clinic OS (from ₹799/month at careflowcms.tech); Careflow AI is available as an in-product plan feature with optional clinical add-ons.

What is Careflow CMS and Careflow AI?

Careflow CMS (careflowcms.tech) is our health-tech Clinic OS: queue, appointments, billing, WhatsApp automation, and recalls. Careflow AI (careflow.ai) sits inside that workspace to help staff run daily workflows, with optional clinical assist tools for licensed doctors. Marketing and Careflow can be used together or separately.

What are GEO and AEO, and do clinics need them?

Generative Engine Optimisation and Answer Engine Optimisation are the work that gets your clinic cited when patients ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google AI Overviews who to see. It builds on good local SEO: accurate profiles, treatment pages, structured data and honest, doctor-reviewed content that an AI engine can quote. We include it in the Search & AI pillar and offer a one-time AI Search Readiness Audit. No engine can be guaranteed to cite you, so we never promise it.

What is the Clinic Navigator?

A short guided tool on this page. You pick your specialty, your main problem, and your practice stage, and it returns a prioritised set of recommended services, a suggested retainer tier, and a low-friction first step.

The Compliant ClinicIssue 01

The NMC's October 2026 advertising guidelines, explained for doctors and clinic owners

What changed on 6 October, what is now explicitly off limits, what you can still do, and the seven things to check in your own marketing this week.

Dr. Kaushal K. Das · 19 October 2026 · 7 min read

On 6 October 2026 the Ethics and Medical Registration Board of the National Medical Commission issued guidelines on ethical advertising and public communication for doctors and hospitals, through a public notice that took effect immediately. If you practise in India and anything about you or your clinic appears on Google, Instagram, a hoarding or a WhatsApp broadcast, this letter is for you.

Nothing here is legal advice. It is a practising doctor's reading of the notice as reported, written so you can act on it before your next post goes out. The sources are at the end, and your State Medical Council has the final word.

What actually happened

The 2023 Registered Medical Practitioner regulations, which many agencies still quote, have been in abeyance since August 2023. The code that governs you is the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, and in particular Regulation 6.1 on advertising. The new guidelines sit on top of that code, were framed in the context of a writ petition pending in the Supreme Court, and spell out, for the first time, how the old rule applies to digital marketing, social media, influencers, agencies and AI.

So the principle is not new. What is new is the list. Things that were arguably grey are now named.

What is now explicitly prohibited

Testimonials and endorsements. Using a patient's or a doctor's name, image, voice or testimonial to promote services. Patient consent does not make it acceptable.
Before-and-after photos, surgical result advertising, celebrity patients and success stories. The only exception is anonymised, consented scientific or educational use.
Superlatives. Best, number one, top, leading, unless objectively verifiable. Comparative claims need a transparent, independently verifiable method.
Guarantees and unrealistic claims. Guaranteed cures, miracle treatments, painless-treatment claims, concealed risks and unproven therapies.
Fear-based marketing that creates unnecessary demand for a procedure or a test.
Inducements. Discounts, limited-time offers, contests, coupons, cashbacks and free procedures that encourage unnecessary care.
Referral payments. Commissions, referral fees and any lead-generation payment tied to a patient.
Product endorsements. A doctor may not endorse a drug or device in connection with their name, photo or professional status.
Fake followers, likes, reviews, ratings or manipulated search rankings.
AI-generated promotional campaigns for commercial interest. Any AI-generated content must carry a mark saying so, and synthetic patients, doctors, images or voices are barred.

The clause about agencies, and why it changes your contracts

Two lines in the notice matter more to doctors and clinic owners than the rest put together. First: using an intermediary, an agency or an influencer, to do indirectly what you cannot do directly does not shift the responsibility. If your agency posts a testimonial, it is your registration on the line. Second: payment to an agency or influencer may not be linked to patient procurement.

That second line makes per-lead, per-patient and per-appointment pricing a problem. A flat monthly retainer for defined work is the compliant structure. If your current agreement pays per lead, it needs to change, and the agency should be the one suggesting it.

The notice also says material commercial relationships must be disclosed, and that healthcare platforms listing doctors may not sell paid rankings. If you pay a directory for a higher position, ask them how they read that line.

What you can still do

Publish factual information: name, qualifications, registration number, specialties, timings, address, contact, fees.
Announce starting a practice, a change of address or practice type, a temporary absence, resumption, and consultation fees.
Take part in health awareness and education, give public talks on TV, radio or online in your own name, provided you are not soliciting patients or promoting your employer.
Share health-education material with your own patients, with no guarantees and no superiority claims.
Hospitals may publish departments, facilities, emergency services, accreditation and charges, and a factual directory of their doctors.
Ask patients honestly for feedback. What you may not do is reward it, fake it, or turn it into a promotional testimonial.

The penalty ladder

For doctors, enforcement sits with the State Medical Council and runs in steps: a warning and ethics training for a first violation, censure and a monetary penalty for a second, suspension of registration for three to six months for a third, six to twelve months for a serious violation such as misleading cure claims, inducement or mass digital solicitation, and removal from the register for one to three years for repeated violations. Penalties need a show-cause notice and a reasoned order, and there is an appeal to the Board within 60 days.

For hospitals and clinical establishments, violations fall under the Clinical Establishments Act or the relevant state law, and the guidelines say the state law prevails where the two conflict.

Seven things to check this week

01Your Google Business Profile description and posts: any best, number one, painless, guaranteed, or offer wording.
02Pinned Instagram posts and reels: testimonials, before-and-after images, celebrity mentions.
03Your website home page and treatment pages: superlatives, percentages, success stories, discounts.
04Running ads: every headline and description, and the landing page they send to.
05WhatsApp broadcasts and templates: festive offers, limited-time wording, referral rewards.
06Your agency agreement: is any part of the fee tied to leads, patients or appointments?
07Your review requests: are they honest asks for feedback, or incentivised?

What we are doing about it

Our retainers were always flat fees, never per lead, and from this month every proposal says so in writing. Every creative is checked against the guidelines before it goes live, and each clinic gets a one-page SOP its front desk can follow. If you want your current marketing audited against the notice, that is a one-time project, and the Clinic Growth Consultation includes it.

This issue reflects the guidelines as reported on and around 6 October 2026. If the NMC publishes clarifications or the Supreme Court matter changes the position, the next issue will say so.