医托 and 活动频繁

[Kenny同志]

请教大家，这句话用英文怎么说？

Could anyone tell me how you say this in English?

我院最近医托活动频繁，望各位患者勿听信陌生人介绍，到非法诊所就医。

Thanks!

[马盖云]

My local hospital scalper operates frequently, I hope all our patients do not listen to the recommendation of strangers, and go to an illegal clinic to receive tratment.

Do you guys have "hospital scalpers" like pimps trying to get people off the street into their clinics? Wow! :blink:

[Kenny同志]

Thanks, 盖云. But as far as I am concerned, a 医托, a person who receives commission from a clinic (or less commonly, a hospital) by beguiling patients into going there with information about his/her or others’ spuriously successful treatment, is unlike a scalper who makes money by buying tickets for an event and reselling them at a very high price. A hospital scalper seems to me a person who buys tickets for medical appointments and resells them to patients at outrageous prices.

Do you guys have "hospital scalpers" like pimps trying to get people off the street into their clinics? Wow!

Yes, we do. Thanks again for your input.

[马盖云]

Ok, Kenny, now that you have given a little more background/context...

I agree the word 'scalper' is not correct here. In english, some words to suggest fraudulent or overly aggressive sellers would include: huckster, charlatan, con artist, and sham. Some of these have various degrees of "intent to defraud", and I don't know how much these 医托 are trying to cheat people vs. get additional customers using shady techinques :-) Try looking up these words to see if any are a better translation for this usage.

[Kenny同志]

I know it's quite hard, but thanks anyway, 盖云.

[ma3zi1]

Actually, in the US we have something like 医托 for clinical trials (臨床試驗). We just call them recruiters though.

[Kenny同志]

Thank you, 马孜. Is the recruiters’ behavior allowed by the law? To me, a 医托 is more like a shill, that is, he or she poses as a satisfied customer to induce more people to buy something or certain service.

[creamyhorror]

To me, a 医托 is more like a shill, that is, he or she poses as a satisfied customer to induce more people to buy something or certain service.

Do they really pose as satisfied customers? Why would a satisfied customer hang around another clinic/hospital trying to convince strangers to go to another hospital? It's not too believable...

I think an appropriate term is "tout", since the 医托 is trying to sell another clinic's services intrusively/inappropriately.

In British English' date=' a tout is any person who solicits business or employment in an importune manner (generally equivalent to a solicitor or barker in American English, or a spruiker in Australian English).

An example would be a person who frequents heavily touristed areas and presents himself as a tour guide (particularly towards those who do not speak the local language) but operates on behalf of local bars, restaurant, or hotels, being paid to direct tourists towards certain establishments.[/quote']

[ma3zi1]

Thank you, 马孜. Is the recruiters’ behavior allowed by the law?

Yes, within certain well-defined boundaries. For instance, you have to inform potential patients of the necessary risks for the new treatment under investigation.

To me, a 医托 is more like a shill, that is, he or she poses as a satisfied customer to induce more people to buy something or certain service.

We do have this as well, but it mostly takes the form of TV advertisements with fake testimonials. For example, a person on an advertisement for a weight loss clinic will say "I lost 200 pounds in month!" Moreover, they usually will show before and after pictures in the background, or the person will hold up the enormous pants they used to wear. However, much of the time, this person is an actor/actress paid to say these things.

It is legal to do this as long as you put a disclaimer somewhere on the screen which says something like "paid actor, does not represent actual patients". Or maybe if the person was actually a real patient, it will say "results not typical" at the bottom.

We don't usually have people on the streets doing this though because TV ads reach more people, and because no one would listen to some crazy on the street recommending medical treatment. Also, it might not be legal to solicit for medical treatment that way.

[Kenny同志]

Thank you both for your detailed explanation.

Do they really pose as a satisfied customer? Why would a satisfied customer hang around another clinic/hospital trying to convince strangers to go to another hospital?

Yes, they do. They hang around a hospital because that’s where their potential targets converge. Though they appear as a satisfied customer, it is highly likely that they have never been treated in the clinic or hospital he tries to sell and from which they receive commission for doing this. A 医托 doesn’t necessarily show up in a hospital, he/she could show up on the Internet, or a TV show or anywhere else. And if a famous person endorses something that’s not what he/she claims to be, he/she can also be perceived as a 托.

We do have this as well, but it mostly takes the form of TV advertisements with fake testimonials. For example, a person on an advertisement for a weight loss clinic will say "I lost 200 pounds in month!"

What do you call such people? I can think of but“endorsers”, a neutral word, while 托 is a disapproving word. Is there any term that’s closer in meaning to 托?

[ma3zi1]

What do you call such people? I can think of but“endorsers”, a neutral word, while 托 is a disapproving word. Is there any term that’s closer in meaning to 托?

Generally we would call someone like that a "money-grubber" or if we want to say something extremely negative about them, we would call them a "money-whore". Both terms just referring to the fact that this type of person will do anything for money, even at the cost of their own self respect.

These terms could be associated with anything though, not just advertisements for medical treatments. For instance, we have a lot of infomercials here in the US for new kitchen appliances or devices to help you exercise. Often these infomercials will feature actors/actresses who didn't make it onto a real TV show or movie, so instead they end up pretending to be satisfied customers for this product.

[Kenny同志]

Thank you, 马孜, very informative.

[abcdefg]

I think "tout" and "shill," both previously mentioned, would be good choices to convey the meaning you are seeking, as well as the negative connotations of the action involved.

You would need to add explanation to the term to indicate the medical context because we don't actually have people who do that on the street here (in the U.S.) like one sometimes sees in China.

An alternative word, especially for someone promoting unproven medicine, perhaps while standing beside a display of dead snakes on the sidewalk outside the vegetable market, would be "huckster."

[Kenny同志]

Thanks for your feedback, abcdefg. I agree with what you said.

[creamyhorror]

"All those paid faces on TV, touting products that they've never even used..."