Marketing health

I have been seeing lots of advertisements about doctors, hospitals and health services in newspapers and bill boards. Wonder if this shrill pitch is of recent origin.Has health and health delivery become marketing commodities?Of course this phenomenon is in addition to the loud name boards proclaiming doctor's clinics and nursing homes,also with neon signs.
My uncle is a doctor and he belonged to the era where he felt his clinic (a part of his house which doubled up as one)should have a simple name board in ordinary letters and nothing jazzy about it. S Rangarajan, M B B S it used to proclaim.He used to tell us kids, that DR should not precede a medical practitioner's name, as it deserved for PhD scholars and of course M D's.My sister and her husband who are doctors also practise with under stated nameboards.It seems medical code of conduct and ethics demand that you shall not advertise.(I think other professions like CA's also have such code of conduct)Being brought up on such a diet, it is jarring to see the latest trend, when medical profession is advertising itself heavily.
India has emerged as a medical tourism destination, and a recent study by Ernst&young,exhorted doctors and their hospitals to get their act together and put up a good show to reach out to the world.The strident tone of the study was jarring, to say the least.