An important piece in The BMJ has received very little news media attention so far, so we thought it was important to point it out here.
Two endocrinologists wrote an Analysis piece, “Web of industry, advocacy and academia in the management of osteoporosis.”
In a nutshell, they write that:
Their concluding paragraph:
“Improving transparency of the interactions between industry, academia, and advocacy organisations is desirable but reducing those interactions is more so. The emerging requirements that drug companies declare payments to health practitioners should be broadened to include supplements and food manufacturers. Advocacy organisations and specialist societies should eschew corporate sponsorship, and academics should not engage with advocacy organisations until it is clear that such commercial ties have been severed.”
-0-
Meantime, The BMJ reports that a 1994 editorial by Doug Altman, “The scandal of poor medical research,” was voted the top paper published by the journal in a poll taken as part of the journal’s 20th online anniversary celebrations.
Altman wrote:
“What should we think about researchers who use the wrong techniques, use the right techniques wrongly, misinterpret their results, report their results selectively, cite the literature selectively, and draw unjustified conclusions? We should be appalled. Yet numerous studies have shown that all of the above phenomena are common. This is surely a scandal.” He called for “less research, better research, and research done for the right reasons.”
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Why fact-checking is not enough to prevent the spread of misleading health care news...@HealthNewsRevu https://t.co/fzC2JbDYGV
Simply fact-checking an article "fails to capture questions of nuance and context that arise – or should arise – whenever evaluating medical evidence." https://t.co/HrYkGj12q1
We wrote only about efforts that label themselves as “fact-checking” projects. You’ll see that if you read the piece.
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