You could fill a day’s worth of programming with "Health Minutes" about new devices. Viewers need evidence about harms, benefits, comparative effectiveness. This "minute" didn’t deliver any of that – only one glowing personal anecdote. The plural of anecdote is not data.
A story on this topic could have touched on how many artificial ankle implants there are on the market or in development. How does the FDA evaluate all of the claims? And how is a patient to be guided in his/her decision-making?
No discussion of costs – a big issue with these pricey devices.
No data. No study results. Just one personal anecdote.
No discussion of the potential harms of the surgical implantation – or of the failure rate of the device.
One personal anecdote is all the evidence we got. The plural of anecdote is not data.
Not applicable – largely because in a minute, there wasn’t much time devoted to giving any background on ankle arthritis.
No independent sources were interviewed – just one true believer surgeon who uses the device in question. No disclosure of whether he has financial ties to the device manufacturer.
Again, no meaningful comparison with the other ankle implant/artificial ankle joint devices either on the market or in development.
We learn nothing about availability – not even if the device is FDA-approved. Is it experimental? Is it on the market? We weren’t told.
The story says, "unlike most ankle surgery that fuses bone-to-bone causing the joint to be rigid, this implant gives full movement to the ankle joint with less pain." But we’re not given any meaningful comparison with the different devices on the market or in testing in order to show how/if this device in question is truly novel.
Not applicable because we can’t be sure what the story was based on.
Systematic, Criteria-Driven
We’ve written about the hype of liquid biopsies for years (see link in comment below). And now this…. https://www.statnews.com/2022/01/12/medicare-shouldnt-cover-liquid-biopsies-early-cancer-detection/
Case counts still matter. “(There) are stories that may not be told adequately if only hospitalizations and deaths are emphasized.” @garyschwitzer interviewed by @dbauder of @AP. https://apnews.com/article/omicron-changing-news-outlets-covid-data-da9272f7c4c8a109c3bfb56bed9e9c76
My friend Gary @garyschwitzer wrote to his city council representative in a Minnesota town about a Viva Las Vegas event scheduled for January.
The response he got seems to perfectly capture where we are now.
https://www.healthnewsreview.org/2021/12/2021-ends-with-covid-craziness-in-sports-and-politics/
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