Search Results for "proton beam"
Troubling beliefs by health care journalists
A writer posted a query on the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) listserv last week asking for ideas about state-of-the-art but underused treatments. Many of the responses were troubling. Some AHCJ members wrote in suggesting: MRI is far superior to mammograms for detecting breast cancer (leading another member to write in asking where […]
7/29/2009Wide-eyed new-technology-in-town health care coverage
Another example of fawning coverage of medical technology. Another example of obsequious news on the DaVinci robotic surgical system, about which I’ve written earlier. (In fact, an earlier post just this week about the President playing with a robot at the Cleveland Clinic.) A story in The Oklahoman reports on a university medical center’s new […]
8/1/2008Awful week for health news on NBC
First, we send our sincere best wishes to NBC reporter George Lewis, who this week reported on his diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer. I have respected his work throughout his career. But the standards of sound journalism are not suspended when a reporter chooses to report on himself. Indeed, concern for balance should be […]
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6 reasons journalists should just say no to Mayo Clinic’s latest journalism ‘residency’ program
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 […]
Gee-whiz news coverage doesn’t ask whether mobile stroke units will help patients
Recently we wrote about lopsided news coverage of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a drug used in emergency rooms to open blocked vessels in patients suspected of having a stroke. While experts vigorously debate whether tPA helps patients, there’s a movement underway to speed the administration of this clot-buster by deploying specially equipped ambulances called mobile […]
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Five Star Friday Feature: pieces for Oprah, STAT, ESPN
Allow us to shine a light on some things that fall outside our regular review process, but which we found noteworthy. Laura Beil’s Oprah mag piece, “Colonoscopy Alternatives Everyone Should Know About,” with an accompanying chart, The 3 Colon Cancer Screening Methods You Need to Know About. Money quote: “Rare is the doctor who doesn’t wholeheartedly […]
Calling out BS on “Promoted stories”
We got some nice recognition from Rodale, Inc. this week, which included our work in their first “Rodale 100” list “honoring trailblazers positively impacting lives around the world.” They published a nice article about our work, “Meet the Guy Who Calls Out B.S. Health News For a Living.” (They didn’t use the part of the interview […]
2/24/2015Stop blaming “demanding patients” for driving up health care costs
A recent JAMA Oncology paper by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel and colleagues from the University of Pennsylvania, “Patient Demands and Requests for Cancer Tests and Treatments,” is worth a look. The authors note that: “Surveyed physicians tend to place responsibility for high medical costs more on “demanding patients” than themselves. However, there are few data about the […]
4/10/2013Men’s Health feature: The $6 Million Dollar Gland
Jim Thornton’s story is about prostate cancer screening. The six million dollar figure refers to the cost of screening for and treating prostate cancer. Excerpt: “At $1,000 or more per biopsy, the cost to U.S. health care for prostate biopsies alone is estimated to run into the billions each year. Whenever cancer is found, expenses […]
6 12/12/2011A physician and a journalist react to NIH prostate cancer active surveillance conference
Here are two perspectives on last week’s NIH State-of-the-Science Conference: Role of Active Surveillance in the Management of Men With Localized Prostate Cancer. The first is from one of our HealthNewsReview.org medical editors, Richard M. Hoffman, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Staff Physician at the […]
