It's not bad enough that direct-to-consumer advertisements have people diagnosing themselves and twisting the arms of their doctors until they give them specific brand name medication. Now we're starting to see ads for medical equipment.

This isn't run-of-the-mill walkers or diabetes testing equipment, though. A company who makes them has begun advertising their $30,000 heart defibrillator, a device that needs to be surgically implanted into a patient. The $100 million campaign is aimed both at informing doctors of the device as well as consumers. If this begins a new wave of medical advertising it has the potential to increase sales of those brands that can afford to market themselves in much the same way as when Big Pharma has seen since 1998, when ad rules on medication were lifted. It could also contribute to the ever increasing cost of health coverage in much the same way as when those medication ads were given more ad leeway.