During the recent MAHA Summit, a convening of Trump administration officials, health care and tech executives, and Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) allies organized by the MAHA Center, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid out his vision for how artificial intelligence (AI) can help patients better manage their health, announcing that Americans will no longer have to simply “trust the experts.” Days later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a new Transparency Roadmap, pledging greater transparency across a range of initiatives. According to the agency, the roadmap “reflects the agency’s intention to maximize disclosure, guided by what is appropriate and good for public health.”
HHS Secretary Kennedy and the FDA have the right intent and deserve credit for keeping American patients front and center in health care decision-making. Patients want – and all Americans deserve – three things: transparency, information, and balance.
For patients, transparency isn’t an abstract principle. It’s key to how they manage their health and conditions: understanding how treatments were evaluated, weighing risks and benefits, and learning what care options exist. That includes drug ads, which are already required under FDA oversight to be truthful and balanced and to disclose major risks.
Patients deserve more information, with the right balance
The FDA Transparency Roadmap recognizes that added visibility into the FDA’s work and reasoning will help empower patients to be informed decision-makers. Information is essential for the millions of Americans living with chronic conditions who make critical decisions about their care every day.
The roadmap also signals that the agency is exploring new rules and guidance for evaluating drug ads across modern media. Patients want more information, paired with the right balance of safety information. Ads must be truthful, present benefits and risks fairly, and disclose major risks. As the agency considers next steps, keeping that balance intact should be the guiding test. For many patients, drug ads help them learn about options and spark conversations with their doctors. In a 2025 survey, 83% of patients living with a chronic disease said advertising had benefited them, and 67% said they had taken action after seeing treatment ads. When that balance is thrown off, patients lose access to information that helps them make informed decisions about their care.
The FDA sent more than 200 enforcement letters on misleading drug ads in 2025 alone. If the agency wants to provide more clarity on how rules apply to new media, that is welcome from a patient perspective, as long as patients continue to have unfettered access to information, and the unintended consequence is not less information on the airwaves. The roadmap’s promise of “honest answers” is best served by protecting the free flow of health information. Changes that tip the balance risk taking valuable information away from the very patients the roadmap aims to serve.
The path forward: empowering patients
The FDA Transparency Roadmap is a promising start, and patients welcome the agency’s commitment to openness. Transparency, information, and balance empower patients to be active participants in their health care decisions while preserving a competitive and innovative health care marketplace. An informed patient is a healthier patient.
