The more you screen, the more you find. And the more you find, the more you find that is not really something you needed to — or wanted to — find. That’s true with just about any health screening test. And you can include hernia screening. Yes, hernia screening, which has become a big-time target […]
STAT does some great stuff. And some clunkers. They get enough praise for the great stuff, but not enough scrutiny of the clunkers. This is one such example. A story based on very preliminary research touted the early work in very promotional tones. A smartphone app could help diagnose ear infections more accurately — and […]
Let me count the ways in which I am moved to write about another unwell piece in the New York Times Well section – “Statins May Cut Glaucoma Risk.” Let’s begin with the first line: “More good news about cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.” No, it’s not good news. There’s no “take it to the bank” definitive […]
Spot the word “first” in a headline and you might assume a major milestone has been reached. Think first person on the moon, first woman on the Supreme Court. But in health care news, things heralded for being first might not amount to a clear advance for patients. Take two recent FDA announcements that made […]
As all researchers know, science is a grinding parade of failure and dead ends. But as we’ve often written, news release writers sometimes seem hell-bent on making the public believe otherwise. Like expert makeup artists, they can add sparkle to lackluster findings, mask blemishes in study designs, and smooth over unimpressive data. One thing I […]
Dec. 14th’s lower court ruling that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unconstitutional has again thrust health care back on the national agenda. It also gives journalists a chance to redeem themselves from what I have argued has been poor news coverage that helped fuel the public backlash against the law from the beginning. A lot […]
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In 2005, as I began building HealthNewsReview.org, I got permission from Dr. David Henry of the Media Doctor Australia project to adopt their news story review criteria. In the ensuing 13 years, no one has ever placed in front of me a solid, specific suggestion for a better set of criteria for reviewing stories about […]
In 2015, a few months before I started working at HealthNewsReview.org, Cosmopolitan magazine published my article, “Why are so many American women dying in childbirth?” Tired of women getting blamed for the problem, I used my personal story to explore the fissures in U.S. maternal health care: At the hospital where I gave birth, and […]
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Craving a trip to Florida in February? If you’re a journalist, the Mayo Clinic has you covered. Once again Mayo is extending an offer to educate health care journalists, this time with what it’s calling a “residency” scheduled for Feb. 24-28 at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla. It’s described as “a behind-the-scenes, in-depth look […]
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In this, our final week of daily publishing as we wind down operations due to a loss of sufficient funding, I want to share some observations after a 45-year career in health care journalism, 13 of which were the pinnacle for me as Publisher of this website. Earlier this year, after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s “surprise” primary election […]
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FINALLY..... a commonsense analysis of yet more HYPE in the media about the next great hope for eliminating breast cancer. Thanks @mcjaklevic and @HealthNewsRevu. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1192417365843206145
Here we go again: another “simple blood test" for early detection of breast cancer. News reports shout “CANCER BREAKTHROUGH” & other hype for preliminary, very limited findings. https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2019/11/theranos-redux-not-really-but-claim-of-a-simple-test-for-breast-cancer-warrants-scrutiny/
Tips & Resources for Analyzing Health Care Claims
