Search Results for "simple test"
A simple test proven to predict how long you’ll live? Gannett gaffe
A veteran health care journalist sent me the following story and wrote, “So irresponsible, bad enough on local (TV) news, but it ends up on USA Today? I hope you can skewer it.” “How long will you live? Try the Sitting Rising Test,” was the headline on USA Today’s website as they posted a TV […]

Words of caution about “simple tests could save lives and money” story
A reader in California asked that we review and comment on a story by Healthline seen on Yahoo Health news: “Simple Tests for Heart Attack Risk Could Save Lives and Money.” Whenever you hear or see the phrase “simple tests,” you should head for the hills because there’s nothing simple or uncomplicated about most health […]
Simple Test May Spot Early Lung Cancer
This was the weakest of the three stories we reviewed on this same study (the others done by AP and Reuters). Read more to find out why.


Simple Test May Spot Early Lung Cancer

Theranos redux? Not really. But claim of a ‘simple’ test for breast cancer warrants scrutiny
Once again the lure of a “simple” test has made headlines. This time the catalyst was a news release issued by the UK’s National Cancer Research Institute. Its title: “Simple blood test for early detection of breast cancer.” In fact, no such test exists. As the body of the PR news release acknowledged, it’s an […]

Questions about a ‘simple blood test’ to screen for cancer prompt revealing answer: It’s complicated
We often tell our readers to run for the hills whenever they see a news story touting a “simple blood test.” You won’t find a better example of why you need to be wary than an exchange between a reporter and a researcher at a news conference at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual […]
Loyola U makes data-free claim that a ‘simple’ heart test can distinguish between major depression and bipolar disorder
A “simple electrocardiogram” can help diagnose major depression or bipolar disorder, a Loyola Medicine news release claims, but where are the data to support this “groundbreaking” study?


Simple Electrocardiogram Can Determine Whether a Patient Has Major Depression or Bipolar Disorder, Study Finds
Lung cancer test based on “a simple blood draw”? There’s no such thing
The release employs mostly cautious language but it comes up short in filling readers in on costs, benefits and quality of evidence.


Exact Sciences and Mayo Clinic study shows promise of new blood-based lung cancer test
Another ‘simple blood test’ for concussion PR release over-promises
Contrary to the release headline, there’s no such thing as a “simple blood test” for brain injury.


Study: Simple blood test can detect evidence of concussions up to a week after injury
“Simple” diagnostic tests are never as simple as presented in PR news releases
Will a paper diagnostic test under development change the diagnostic tools landscape? By not mentioning alternatives (both new and conventional) this release fails to make its case.


Researchers Develop Simple Paper Test That Quickly Diagnoses Illnesses by Changing Colour
Blood test to detect concussions in kids anything but “simple”
Whenever you hear about a ‘simple blood test’ run for the hills cuz there ain’t no such thing.


Concussions in kids are detectable by blood test
Exploding a prominent medical center’s claims of a “simple” and “definitive” test for irritable bowel syndrome
There are two sides to every story, and this news release gives only one of them. The rosy description provided belies some big questions about how useful this test really is.


Definitive tests for irritable bowel syndrome developed at Cedars-Sinai: New blood tests will speed up diagnosis for the most common GI disorder
A Simple 3-Part Test May Predict Alzheimer’s
This story reports on the results of a study entitled, “Predicting the Risk of Mild Cognitive Impairment in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging.” In doing so, it confuses mild cognitive impairment with Alzheimer’s disease, never noting the difference between the two conditions.


A Simple 3-Part Test May Predict Alzheimer’s
A Simple Flashcard Test to Detect Concussions
This is an interesting, readable account of a new study on a hot topic. But identifying concussions with this new test isn’t quite as simple as the story suggests.


A Simple Flashcard Test to Detect Concussions
“Simple” blood test to predict if you’ll be alive in 5 years? Please….
The obsession that some in journalism have with “simple” blood tests – the unquestioning “test for everything” mentality that shines through in so many stories – is, itself, bloodcurdling. Yesterday we wrote about how CNN stated that an Alzheimer’s test had “astonishing accuracy” – when another solid news story reported that “the accuracy fell short […]
Simple Breath Test Might Diagnose Heart Failure
News editors should have taken a hint from the editors of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology who gave this research space for only a brief report, not thinking it worthy of a full-length article. The story exaggerates the importance and mischaracterizes the results of the study.

