On the Knight Science Journalism Tracker, Paul Raeburn reflects on use of the word cure in reference to recent AIDS news. Excerpts:
“Reporters who cover science and medicine often make the mistake, early in their careers, of reporting that somebody who has responded to a treatment has been “cured,” or that some medical advance or other is a “breakthrough.” After we’ve made a mistake such as that, or more than one, we generally learn that many, many things called “cures” or “breakthroughs” are anything but.
…
The word “cure” appeared in the news about 10 days ago, when doctors announced at a medical conference in Atlanta that they had cured a baby born in rural Mississippi by treating it aggressively with antiretroviral drugs beginning about a day after it was born.
…
(In a more recent story) French researchers reported Friday that they had found 14 people whose immune systems seem to be controlling HIV without medication. Here we get a new kind of qualified cure.
…
The larger point is that the proper approach with stories such as these is to be very careful not to overstate the findings or the implications. Be cautious now, and be excited to write the follow-up in a year or two reporting that these are cures and do have implications for others, if that turns out to be the case.
The alternative is to get excited about “cures” now and likely be forced to write the follow-up that says, no, we were wrong to talk about cures; this just didn’t work out.”
Cure was one of the “7 Words You Shouldn’t Use in Medical News” in an article I wrote 13 years ago. I didn’t create that list in isolation; each of the 7 words was suggested to me by sick people I’d interviewed as words to avoid in health care news stories.
ADDENDUM: Elaine Schattner points out a coincidence – that on the American College of Physicians’ ACP Internist site, there is a post today entitled, “Oncology clinicians, patients balk at the word ‘cure’.” It addresses a pilot study published in the Journal of Oncology Practice.
————————
Follow us on Facebook, and on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer
https://twitter.com/healthnewsrevu
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Comments are closed.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like