The NBC Today Show is traveling around the country this week taking viewers “inside the operating room” to see various procedures. 
Monday it was Cleveland and a heart arrhythmia procedure. Very high tech stuff.
Tuesday it was Boston and a baby born by C-section. Absolutely no news. Just drama and cute fat baby video.
An “Inside the Operating Room” series, of course, is going to make surgery and high-tech interventions seem dramatic.
I only wish we’d see a week-long series on primary care – doctors and nurse practitioners and RNs and others dealing with patients in shared decision-making encounters. Last week, at the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making’s annual research and policy forum, I talked with two health care consumers who truly exemplified the ideal of informed and shared decision-making. Mary Bianchi of Northern California talked about her breast cancer decision-making and Larry Forsberg of Minnesota talked about his BPH decision-making. I wish more Americans could hear more often (in news stories and elsewhere) from smart, informed patients and consumers like these two.
They may not involve high-tech interventions, but primary care encounters are where a lot of the rubber-meets-the-road health care happens – and where true health care reform might take place.
I’m not holding my breath to see that weeklong TV series, though.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
We’ve written about the hype of liquid biopsies for years (see link in comment below). And now this…. https://www.statnews.com/2022/01/12/medicare-shouldnt-cover-liquid-biopsies-early-cancer-detection/
Case counts still matter. “(There) are stories that may not be told adequately if only hospitalizations and deaths are emphasized.” @garyschwitzer interviewed by @dbauder of @AP. https://apnews.com/article/omicron-changing-news-outlets-covid-data-da9272f7c4c8a109c3bfb56bed9e9c76
My friend Gary @garyschwitzer wrote to his city council representative in a Minnesota town about a Viva Las Vegas event scheduled for January.
The response he got seems to perfectly capture where we are now.
https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2021/12/2021-ends-with-covid-craziness-in-sports-and-politics/
Comments (2)
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Aurora
February 2, 2010 at 3:42 pmYou have a good point. It’s true that medical news covers the exciting and cute stuff more than the simply informative- that is what they think will sell. And it certainly does draw the eye and attention. If you were going to make a show about primary care, what would happen in it?
-Aurora from MDiTV, a new internet-based medical news tv company, (also really interested in what you are talking about)
http://www.mditv.com
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