It’s not a "treatment" until it helps a living human being. Until then, it’s an experiment.
In a story that afforded the topic only 268 words, rather than using 23 of them to say that "the goal is a relatively simple procedure that would last half an hour at most and use largely automated equipment in mobile clinics" – perhaps a cautious independent perspective would have helped remind people that this research wasn’t done on people – only on donor lenses.
Science briefs have their merit, but not when they offer too few details to show what an extremely early stage of research this is in.
Not applicable. Costs not discussed, which is understandable at this early stage of research.
We’ve already told you what the story didn’t: that this was an experiment on 9 human organ donor lenses. But the story also didn’t say if the approach had the intended effect on all 9, half of them, or how many. The story also didn’t capture what the researchers reported:
"The effect of the laser treatment remained visible 1 to 2 weeks after the treatment. Continued observation was not possible due to the gradual optical deterioration of the donor lenses post mortem."
So the leap to knowing how this might work in the bodies of living people is large, despite a headline that stated, "Laser Treatment May Work For Cataracts."
You can’t say much about potential harms when all that’s been reported is an experiment on 9 human organ donor lenses. But the story didn’t even capture what the authors wrote:
"…many questions must be answered and many issues solved before the treatment can be used clinically, such as the effect of the treatment on the scattering properties of the lens and long term effects of the treatment on the lens as well as the rest of the eye."
The story never explained that the experiment was done on just 9 human organ donor lenses.
No independent source was quoted.
No meaningful comparison was (or perhaps could be) given between this experiment in 9 lenses and lens replacement surgery or any other experimental approach to cataracts.
The final line "much more research and development work remains" may help readers understand that this is not a readily available approach.
Not applicable. There aren’t any claims made about novelty, but neither is there any context about any other experimental approaches to cataracts.
Systematic, Criteria-Driven
Monday at #ADA2021, an infectious disease epidemiologist, a journalist, and a researcher shared perspectives on communication of risk in the era of COVID-19: http://ow.ly/ROfR30rMeE7 @AstleyCM @garyschwitzer @berthahidalgo @ADA_DiabetesPro
Shoutouts to @susan_bewley @drkevinknopf @MichaelBaum11 in this call for more than fawning coverage from press releases for these kinds of stories.
Also, linked history inside goes back 5 years just on Grail apparently trying to become Holy Grail. https://twitter.com/garyschwitzer/status/1408849696416841731
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