An example of how major-market television news delivers gee-whiz, awestruck segments on robotic surgery. This is from the NBC station in Los Angeles. The formula is familiar: surgeon comes on the set still wearing scrubs he says he just did 3 robotic procedures that day one of them was “first single-site, single-incision gallbladder removal done [...]
This week we’ve already written about marketing of “preventive MRI scans” and of a free nose job promotion. I often write about these medical marketing messages because I think the public should see some of the promotions that go on behind the scenes to try to convince journalists to write about treatments, tests, products and [...]
Trine Tsouderos of the Chicago Tribune published a noteworthy story, “Remote-control surgery grows, despite inconclusive evidence.“ Excerpts: Intuitive Surgical is a medical sensation, transforming surgery in some fields, especially gynecology and urology, in about a decade. More than 250,000 hysterectomies and prostate removal surgeries were done with the da Vinci last year, according to the [...]
Nothing new, just good perspective in a Reuters piece, “Stemming the tide of overtreatment in U.S. healthcare.” And some great quotes. Examples: “I don’t trust professional societies to (set clinical guidelines) because that’s how they make money – by doing tests and procedures,” said MIT healthcare economist Dr. Jonathan Gruber; “When hospitals buy robots they [...]
The blogger known only as the Skeptical Scalpel (self-described as a surgeon for 40 years and a surgical department chairman and residency program director for over 23 of those years) continues his thread of posts raising questions about the proliferation of robotic surgery. The latest is entitled “Study: Robotic surgery financials explained.” It’s his take [...]
Robotic prostatectomy has spread all over the US despite the fact that we don’t have clinical trial data to show that it’s better than traditional open surgery. The marketing of the new, the high-tech, is amplified by news coverage that uses headlines such as the following: Robot doctor – surgery of tomorrow Da Vinci puts [...]
Ear, nose and throat specialist Christopher Chang, MD, blogged about a Newark Star-Ledger story he saw about “surgeons on the cutting edge in fight against sleep apnea” using robotic surgery. Chang wrote: “My feeling is that using a robot to perform sleep apnea surgery is way overkill akin to using a $50,000 sniper rifle to [...]
The Watchdog’s elves are everywhere this Christmas season, and one of them reports that a New Jersey medical center is promoting its robotic surgery system in a very upscale mall. This particular elf took a photo to send to Watchdog Santa. It turns out that a local news website added to the medical center’s free [...]
This story focuses on a family that may have a rare genetic mutation that increases their risk of heart disease. Unfortunately, the “rare” part wasn’t mentioned until 1,600 words into this 2,100 word story.
While this story adequately addressed 7 of our 10 criteria, the 3 on which it missed were significant omissions, yet could have been easily addressed.
Solid medical conference reporting, with many expert interviews and good context provided. Goes far beyond the conference presentation itself.
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