Medical Marketing with Creators: What Is Allowed in Poland

Medical marketing covers everything a private clinic, dental, physiotherapy practice or diagnostic lab does to attract and keep patients – from the website and map listing to social media content. In Poland it operates within clear limits: a healthcare provider may inform the public about its services, but that information must not have the features of advertising. Working with online creators fits within these limits when the creator educates, shows the facility and talks about their own experience rather than promising treatment results. This article explains what is allowed, what to avoid and how to plan such a campaign step by step.

What medical marketing is and why it follows different rules

In most industries, marketing comes down to persuading a customer. In healthcare the question is different: how do you make sure a patient looking for help finds your facility and has reliable information to make a decision? The difference comes from the fact that a patient is not an ordinary consumer. They often act out of fear, pain or time pressure, and can hardly judge the quality of a medical service before the visit.

That is why Polish law and the medical self-government separate two things: information about services, which is allowed and needed, and advertising, which healthcare providers may not use. For a clinic owner or marketing manager this means a practical rule: every piece of content – including one recorded by a creator – has to be judged on whether it conveys facts or pushes a procedure the way a shop pushes shoes.

Against this background, creators matter more and more. Patients look for health information on social media, read reviews and watch accounts of visits. A creator whom viewers trust can introduce the facility, explain what an examination looks like and ease the fear of the visit. There is one condition: the format must stay informational.

The legal framework of medical marketing in Poland

This section sums up the main sources of the rules. It is not legal advice – for a specific campaign, especially in aesthetic medicine, dentistry or anything involving medical devices, have the content reviewed by a lawyer specialising in medical law.

A facility may inform, not advertise

The core provision is Article 14(1) of the Polish Act on Medical Activity. An entity performing medical activity makes public information about the scope and types of healthcare services it provides, and the content and form of this information may not have the features of advertising. It applies to the facility as a whole – hospitals, outpatient clinics, clinic networks and also medical practices that are healthcare entities.

In practice you may say which services the facility provides, who sees patients, how to book, where it is and what a visit looks like. Elements typical of advertising are risky: encouraging people to buy a procedure, comparisons with competitors, promises of results, promotions framed as a commercial offer.

Code of Medical Ethics: doctors are responsible for what others publish

The second pillar is the medical self-government. The Polish Code of Medical Ethics, as adopted by the Extraordinary National Congress of Physicians on 18 May 2024, allows a doctor in Article 71 to use information about the services offered, provided it complies with medical ethics. It defines such information as any form of communication spreading the image of the doctor or their services.

For creator partnerships, paragraph 4 of that article matters most: the doctor is responsible for information about their services published by third parties on their behalf or for their benefit. A creator's video about a visit to a specific doctor is therefore not just “the creator's business” – if the facility commissioned it, the doctor and the facility should know what will be said. Paragraph 5 adds that a doctor's authority must not be used to promote services unrelated to practising medicine. Article 73 forbids acquiring patients in ways inconsistent with ethics and giving unreliable information about services, competence and treatment costs.

Medicines and medical devices have separate, stricter rules

If a specific medicine appears in the content, the Pharmaceutical Law applies, which among other things rules out advertising prescription-only medicines to the public. When you show equipment or a product that is a medical device, the 2022 Act on Medical Devices comes into play, with its own advertising rules, including limits on using the image of healthcare professionals. We cover this in more detail in our article on who is responsible for influencer ads for medicines, supplements and medical devices. The simplest rule for a facility: in creator content, talk about the service and the patient experience, not about medicine or equipment brands.

Disclosing the partnership

Whatever the industry, commissioned content must be clearly labelled as a paid partnership, so viewers know from the start that the creator works with the facility.

Why medical facilities turn to creators

Most private facilities rely on search to win patients: paid campaigns, map listings and the website. These channels serve patients who already know what they are looking for. The catch is that every facility in town competes for the same patient, and the cost per click in popular specialties can be high.

Creators work earlier. They reach people who are not yet looking for a doctor but keep postponing a check-up, are afraid of the dentist or have lived with back pain for months. Well-made educational content gets that person to act – and to remember where they saw a calm, reliable explanation. It does not replace search, but it makes patients type your facility's name instead of a generic phrase.

The second reason is trust. Choosing a healthcare provider is a decision in which people rely on others' opinions. A creator showing the reception, the treatment room and the course of a visit answers questions a website cannot: is there a wait, does the staff explain things, is it clean, is there parking.

Safe formats for working with creators

The formats below fit the logic of information well, as long as the script sticks to facts. The choice depends on the type of facility and the patients you want to reach.

Educational and prevention content

The creator prepares content on how often to have check-ups, how to prepare for a blood test, when to see a physiotherapist after an injury or what a first orthodontic visit looks like. The facility provides reliable knowledge, the creator translates it into their audience's language. This is the safest format because its goal is knowledge, not selling a procedure.

A tour of the facility

Showing the reception, waiting room, treatment rooms and the patient's path from entrance to exit answers practical questions and reduces anxiety before a first visit. It is information about where and how services are provided, not an incentive to buy a procedure. Before filming, make sure no patients or their data appear on camera.

The creator's own patient experience

A creator who uses the service can describe how the visit went, what was explained and how they felt. The key is that they talk about their impressions and the course of the visit, not promises such as “this treatment will definitely help you”. One person's result is not a guarantee for the viewer and should not be presented as one.

A conversation instead of “advertising the doctor”

A Q&A in which the creator asks viewers' questions and a specialist gives factual answers shifts the focus from promotion to education. Remember Article 71 of the Code of Medical Ethics, though: the doctor appearing in the content is responsible for it, so they should approve the script and the final version.

Wellness, physiotherapy and cosmetic services

Facilities that offer non-medical services alongside healthcare, such as exercise classes, relaxation massage or skincare treatments, have more freedom in promoting them. The line between a healthcare service and a non-medical one is not always obvious, especially in aesthetic medicine, so if in doubt, check the classification with a lawyer. Such campaigns suit creators from the beauty and lifestyle niches.

What to avoid in a medical facility's campaign

• Before-and-after photos presented as a promise. Comparing results suggests to viewers that it will be the same for them, which directly contradicts the informational nature of the message.
• Guaranteed results. Phrases like “painless”, “guaranteed result” or “best in town” are the language of advertising, not information.
• Treatment discounts framed like a shop sale. “This week only – 30% off implants with code X” is a typical commercial incentive. If you want to track results with a code, use it to identify the source, not as an aggressive discount.
• Comparisons with other facilities. Criticising competitors clashes with the professional loyalty principles of the Code of Medical Ethics.
• The creator as a medical expert. A creator without medical training should not diagnose or advise on treatment. They talk about their experience; medical knowledge comes from the specialist.
• Patients' data and images without consent. Nobody except people who knowingly agreed should appear on camera.

How to choose creators for medical marketing

Follower count matters less here than in other industries. Three things matter more.

An audience in your city. A medical facility serves patients from a specific area, so content watched by thousands of people on the other side of the country changes little. Look for local creators – for example in the catalogue of creators from Warsaw or other cities where you operate.

Topics close to health and lifestyle. Natural partners are creators from the health niche: sport, activity, diet, parenting, seniors. Parents of young children are a good audience for paediatrics and children's dentistry, active people for physiotherapy and orthopaedics.

Tone and credibility. Review several recent posts. Does the creator talk about health responsibly or repeat trendy myths? Do viewers ask them for advice in the comments, and do they answer sensibly? A creator who previously promoted “miracle cures” is a risk to the facility's image regardless of your partnership's content.

A brief with a compliance review

In medical marketing, a brief is not only a description of the idea but also a risk-control tool. Besides the standard elements described in our guide how to write a brief for a creator, add a rules section:

• the content goal framed as information or education, e.g. “explain what a first orthodontic visit looks like”;
• facts the creator may share, prepared and checked by a specialist;
• a list of excluded phrases: promised results, “we guarantee”, comparisons, medicine names;
• filming rules in the facility: no patients on camera, no medical records on screens;
• the requirement to label the partnership;
• approval of the script and final version by the doctor or the person responsible for compliance, and by a lawyer when in doubt.

Approval before publication is not a formality in this industry. Since the doctor is responsible for information published for their benefit, the facility must see the content before patients do.

How to measure results: bookings, calls, codes

A facility cares about one thing: whether it gained patients. Reach and likes are only background. The simplest measurement methods are:

• A separate UTM-tagged link to the booking page or system for each creator. You can see how many people came from each piece of content and how many booked a visit.
• A question at reception. Staff ask new patients how they heard about the facility. Simple, but in local campaigns often the most reliable.
• An identification code. A phrase or code given when booking that assigns the patient to a creator – without presenting it as a discount.
• Phone calls. If patients mostly book by phone, compare calls and new registrations during the publication period with earlier weeks.

Remember that a decision about treatment takes longer than a purchase decision. Judge the campaign over several weeks, not on the day of publication. More on this in our article on how to measure the results of a creator campaign.

How Blogger Bank helps medical facilities work with creators

A clinic owner or the marketing manager of a practice network rarely has time to search for creators, exchange emails and finalise contracts, and in this industry content control comes on top. On Blogger Bank the whole collaboration cycle happens in one place:

• Instead of searching the web for local health creators – you describe the task: which format, in which city and which rules apply, and creators apply to your task themselves.
• Instead of guessing who watches a creator – you browse profiles that creators fill in themselves, not data scraped from the web.
• Instead of weeks of preparing a contract – the contract with the chosen creator is generated automatically.
• Instead of paying for content the doctor has not yet approved – secure payment reaches the creator only after the material is accepted.
• Instead of a spreadsheet and dozens of threads for a campaign across several clinics – you run the chats, contracts and terms of a big campaign in one panel.

Browse the influencer catalogue by niche and city. Create a company account and describe in your first task what informational content you want to prepare for your patients.