CBS’ Dr. Jennifer Ashton started with the numbers: Pancreatic cancer kills three-quarters of the people diagnosed with it within a year, and 95 percent within five years. But then she stopped. In discussing a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins that is testing a new immune therapy, she gave absolutely no data on what’s been seen [...]
Consider these statistics: There are more nurse practitioners (147,000) than there are family physicians (100,000) in the US. These advance practice nurse professionals can write prescriptions, and it’s estimated that the average nurse practitioner writes more than 6,000 a year. And about 70-80% of those nurses who regularly attended lunch or dinner “continuing education” events [...]
Journalist Andrew Holtz, one of our story reviewers on HealthNewsReview.org, has some fun with a horse-race style look at low carb versus low fat diet research on his MDiTV.com site.
The hosts of this international conference on disease-mongering have asked my help in spreading the word. I’ll be attending. Some of you may be interested as well.
Dr. Oz was named best talk show host in the 37th Annual Daytime Emmy awards. Meantime, a NY Daily News column was headlined, “Emmys, don’t be led down Dr. Oz’s yellow brick road: Oprah’s favorite doctor promotes quackery.” Here’s a promo from his site for an episode on “Dr. Oz’s Ultimate Anti-Aging Guide.”
From today’s latest addition to this excellent series: “Americans increasingly are treated to death, spending more time in hospitals in their final days, trying last-ditch treatments that often buy only weeks of time, and racking up bills that have made medical care a leading cause of bankruptcies. More than 80 percent of people who die [...]
The New York Times had an important story that “highlights what experts say is a troubling situation for patients and doctors: when disputes arise about orthopedic implant safety, there are no independent referees or sources of information because no one tracks the performance of the devices. …Those with the most to lose are the hundreds [...]
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Georgetown’s PharmedOut.org project, along with the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and the Georgetown University Law Center are hosting an academic conference, “Prescription for Conflict: Should Industry Fund CME?” tomorrow (Friday June 25, 2010). Speakers include Joshua Sharfstein, MD, Principal Deputy Commissioner, FDA, Thomas Insel, MD, Director, National Institute of Mental Health, Daniel Carlat, MD, Carl [...]
John Fauber reports in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “St. Luke’s review finds almost 30% echocardiograms are misread; Better training needed to avoid false diagnoses, researchers say.” Peggy Peck of MedPageToday.com touched off quite a discussion with her disclosure that her company was now requiring reporters to requiring reporters to inform readers whenever a press officer has [...]
At least on the Chicago Tribune’s website, this story appeared in the Health section – not the local business or feature section. It didn’t address most of the things we think are crucial in a health story.
“Brown fat” has ignited a grease fire of media hype in recent weeks.This WebMD story missed a good opportunity to smother the flames.
We reviewed this story and a competing AP story on these new fibroid studies. Read and compare.
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