Where is the line when promoting your clinic online?

When you prepare a clinic website, you carry two different responsibilities at the same time. On one side, patients need to reach accurate information easily and book appointments without hassle. On the other, promoting healthcare services is bound by much stricter rules than advertising an ordinary business, and patient data is by law among the most sensitive types of data. Whether it is a dental clinic, a physical therapy center, an aesthetics clinic or an eye clinic, these two responsibilities need to be kept in balance.

This article is not a substitute for legal advice. Its purpose is to show clinic owners, in plain terms, which questions to pay attention to when starting digital work.

The difference between information and advertising in healthcare

In Türkiye, the promotion of private healthcare providers is restricted by the Ministry of Health's regulations and by professional codes of conduct. The general approach is this: information that describes who the provider is, which services it offers, its medical staff, its address and its opening hours is permitted; advertising aimed at steering patients, creating demand or raising exaggerated expectations is restricted.

In practice, the content that most often causes problems includes:

• Claims such as "the best," "guaranteed," "painless" or "certain results"
• Before-and-after treatment photos
• Publishing patient reviews and thank-you messages for promotional purposes
• Price-driven offers such as discounts, campaigns or "free first consultation"
• Promotional content featuring celebrities or patients

The details of the rules can vary by type of provider and are updated over time. That is why we recommend consulting a lawyer who knows the current regulations, or your professional association, before content goes live. Our role is to build the site in a plain, informative language suited to that review.

What can safely appear on a clinic website?

The restrictions may look daunting, but most of the information patients actually need falls under information:

• The clinic's licensed name, address, directions and opening hours
• Doctors' names, specialties and educational background
• What the services offered are and how they generally work
• What to bring to an appointment, and preparation information
• Contracted insurers and payment methods
• Frequently asked practical questions (is there parking, is it wheelchair accessible?)

This kind of content is useful to patients and also makes you visible in search engines for searches such as "physical therapy center near me."

How should online appointments be set up?

Online booking is the feature patients expect most. But the "let's add a form that lands in an email inbox" approach creates two problems: the request can get lost in the receptionist's inbox, and health information ends up circulating by email.

A healthier setup looks like this:

1. The patient selects a doctor or department and chooses one of the available times.
2. The form asks only for the information needed for the appointment: name, phone and preferred time. Details of the complaint are not requested, or are left optional.
3. The appointment lands in a secure panel, and the patient receives a confirmation by SMS or email.
4. A reminder message is sent the day before; this is the simplest way to reduce no-shows.

If your clinic uses patient management software, a connection can be set up so the appointment doesn't have to be re-entered by hand.

Why is patient data protected differently?

KVKK, Türkiye's Personal Data Protection Law, classifies health data as special category personal data. This means stricter security measures and narrower processing conditions than for ordinary contact information. What to watch for on the website:

• Forms must run over an encrypted connection (HTTPS).
• Information from forms should not pile up in a shared email inbox that everyone can access.
• Advertising and analytics tools on the site must not carry information from appointment or condition pages to third parties.
• The privacy notice should state clearly which information is collected, why, and how long it will be kept.
• Staff access to patient information should be limited according to their role.

We cover these topics in more detail on our KVKK compliance page.

Checklist

How we do it at Globya

In clinic projects, we write content in an information-focused language suited to legal review, and we wait for you and your advisor to give final approval. We set up the appointment system, reminder messages and data security with a single point of contact. KVKK requirements are never left out, and there is no extra charge for them. For our industry-specific approach, take a look at our healthcare and clinics page.

Frequently asked questions