Latest Reviews |
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Cholesterol Drugs May Treat Psoriasis
March 8, 2010
The story begins with a first sentence that is simply inaccurate: "Once again, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have been shown to be good for more than the heart." No, this study didn't show that. It didn't show cause and effect and wasn't even statistically significant. So what makes this newsworthy? (read more)
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Gary's Blog |
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Mar 15, 2010
Memo to Harry Smith & CBS News re: colonoscopy crusading
Dear Harry,
There's nothing wrong with advocating for more awareness of colon cancer screening - although we don't think that crusading advocacy is a role for journalism, which is supposed to independently vet claims of evidence.
So, instead of all the promotion of your live colonoscopy last week, you and CBS could have investigated the evidence about colon cancer screening.
And if you ha
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Knowing relative risk reduction is like knowing you have a 50% off coupon but not knowing whether it's for a Lexus or a lollipop. Absolute risk reduction tells you what the "coupon" is worth. Read more.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is considered the gold standard of preventive health recommendations - including on screening tests. It's a good source for journalists and consumers.
About 70% of the stories reviewed from 2006-9 failed to adequately discuss costs, or to explain how big (or small) are the potential benefits and harms of treatments, tests, products and procedures.
We have documented a disturbing trend of news stories taking an advocacy stance, promoting certain screening tests outside the boundaries of scientific evidence.
Stories on new technologies like Cyberknife, DaVinci robotic surgery systems, and proton beam cancer therapy often fail to scrutinize the evidence and/or to discuss the costs involved.
Rather than suggesting that everyone should be screened for everything, news stories could explain: "All screening tests cause harm; some may do good."
The first 38 network TV network morning health news stories reviewed in 2009 earned an average score of 1.2 stars. 13 of the 38 stories got ZERO stars.
Both TIME magazine and BusinessWeek have published terrific stories explaining the importance of the Number Needed to Treat - or NNT.
Knowing relative risk reduction is like knowing you have a 50% off coupon but not knowing whether it's for a Lexus or a lollipop. Absolute risk reduction tells you what the "coupon" is worth. Read more.
The website NoFreeLunch.org posts "a database of health care professionals who have pledged to accept no gifts from industry and to rely on non-promotional sources of information."
To help journalists cover stories responsibly, we post a list of independent experts who state that they do not have financial ties to drug or medical device manufacturers.
Gary Schwitzer's seven words you shouldn't use in medical news: cure, miracle, breakthrough, promising, dramatic, hope, victim. Read why.
Our reviewers include two former CNN medical reporters and a former editor of the Washington Post health section.
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