About Health News Review

What is Health News Review?

HealthNewsReview.org is a website dedicated to:

• improving the accuracy of news stories about medical treatments, tests and procedures
• helping consumers evaluate the evidence for and against new ideas in health care

        We support and encourage the ABCs of health journalism:

        Accuracy
        Balance
        Completeness

What news stories are reviewed?

HealthNewsReview.org reviews news stories that make a therapeutic claim about:

• specific treatments
• procedures
• investigational drugs or devices
• vitamins or nutritional supplements
• diagnostic and screening tests

Who conducts the reviews?

A multi-disciplinary team of reviewers from journalism, medicine, health services research and public health assesses the quality of the stories using a standardized rating system. Stories are graded and critiques are published on this website.

What do the stars mean?

A news story receives a rating based on how well it covers the 10 criteria of the standardized rating system. The stars correspond to the score the story receives.

Where did the idea come from?

This website is modeled, in large part, upon the pioneering effort begun by an Australian team that launched the Media Doctor (http://www.mediadoctor.org.au ) website in 2004. We are grateful to David Henry and the Media Doctor team for sharing their ideas and perspectives with us. The Australian effort has also been the inspiration for a Media Doctor Canada site (http://www.mediadoctor.ca), whose publisher, Alan Cassels, has been very helpful in guiding us.

Does Health News Review give medical advice?

HealthNewsReview.org does not provide medical opinion. Nothing in our reviews should be construed as medical advice.

Is HealthNewsReview.org fair to journalists?

We understand there are many challenges to achieving accuracy, balance and completeness in health care journalism. For a reporter, there are deadlines, editors, and corporate financial pressures. We hold the bar high for quality in health care journalism because it plays a major role in educating consumers. Consumers need to be well informed to make sound choices that affect their health and well being.

How is HealthNewsReview.org funded?

The funding for HealthNewsReview.org is provided by the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making

Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making

The Foundation's mission is to assure that people understand their choices and have the information they need to make sound decisions affecting their health and well being.

The Foundation's objectives:

• Promote understanding and adoption of informed medical decision-making.
• Organize and frame medical evidence in an unbiased manner to help people evaluate their options, particularly in instances where differences in individual preferences and perspectives are likely to affect personal choice.
• Sponsor research to expand knowledge of how to improve decision quality in health care.

In a complex medical environment, where cost savings, commercial interests or professional beliefs and commitments are likely to drive medical decisions, the Foundation provides information that is as objective, complete and unbiased as possible.

The Foundation is a non-profit organization.