Media and Medicine

Physicians writing on KevinMD about how the news covers medicine: bad science in headlines, misinformation and how to answer it, television doctors and the physician as influencer, drug stigma in photographs, and what it costs a patient when a story gets it wrong. Most of the archive dates from 2008 to 2016, when medical journalism was a daily argument on the site; the recent posts are about misinformation and reputation.

How many people expect perfect outcomes in medical practice?

WhiteCoat, MD

Physician

March 6, 2012

Want more evidence about how many people expect perfect outcomes in medical practice?

Look no further than the Wall Street Journal: “What if the Doctor is Wrong?” by Laura Landro.

As a substantive basis for the conclusion that initial treating physicians are “wrong” when they haven’t yet reached a diagnosis, Ms. Landro interviewed two patients who, in the midst of a workup, left the doctor who was trying to diagnose and …

Reporters and doctors are more similar than you think

Joyce Ho, MD

Medical Education

February 12, 2012

One of the things I have come to really enjoy and appreciate is the opportunity to interview the subjects of my articles and multimedia pieces. In a way, being a reporter reminds me a lot of being a physician-in-training – both roles require me to go into a room, learn an individual’s story inside out, and present the learned information for a further goal.

In my Public Issues Reporting class, the …

Stories help the public make sense of evidence

Kenneth Lin, MD

Physician

January 20, 2012

Recently, I presented Family Medicine Grand Rounds at Georgetown University School of Medicine on resolving conflicts between screening guidelines. During the question and answer session, Department Chair James Welsh, MD asked how evidence from carefully conducted clinical trials can possibly overcome powerful emotional stories of “saved lives.”

I answered that evidence-based medicine’s supporters must fight anecdotes with anecdotes. For every person who believes his or her life was extended by a …

Why doctors need Hollywood

Adam Bitterman, DO

Physician

December 3, 2011

Sex sells. US Weekly and People fly off the shelves with the latest reality star drama. Unfortunately, the same does not apply to the diseases running rampant in today’s society. Is there an answer? I would like to say yes, but the ultimate answer remains to be seen. After my four years of undergraduate work and four more years of medical school, I am confident that there are a myriad …

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Why doctors need Hollywood

The media’s role in educating patients about MRI overuse

Kevin Pho, MD

KevinMD

November 3, 2011

Thankfully, there have been more news stories recently illustrating the overuse of tests.

Specifically with cancer screening, the PSA test and mammograms have come under increasing scrutiny.

I think this type of media attention is long overdue, as the public needs to be aware of the potential downsides of diagnostic tests.

Now comes the MRI.

A recent piece in the New …

It is a rare medical news story that gets high marks

George Lundberg, MD

Physician

September 29, 2011

Like you, I receive a whole bunch of breaking medical news every day, from television, radio, newspapers, direct mail, email alerts, press releases, and multiple websites.

Is any of it worth my time, my attention, or even a change in my knowledge, attitude, behavior, or medical practice? How can I quickly tell?

A medical journalist from Minnesota named Gary Schwitzer recognized this problem many years ago and created a service that …

Andrea Mitchell breast cancer thoughts

Gary Schwitzer

Conditions and Diseases

September 14, 2011

For the past 24 hours I’ve squirmed about whether to or how to criticize NBC’s Andrea Mitchell about her on-air announcement of her breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. How can you criticize someone who is dealing with what she – and so many other women – are dealing with? But it’s now clear that some breast cancer survivors and others who know the science are critical of the message …

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Andrea Mitchell breast cancer thoughts

Essential tips for medical journalists

Gary Schwitzer

Potpourri

September 13, 2011

We’re five years old. We’ve been doing the same thing the same way for five years and have analyzed over 1,488 stories using our ten standardized criteria on HealthNewsReview.org.

We’ve recently returned from the annual Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) conference in Philadelphia, where we led a two-hour workshop, and where we received a tremendous amount of gratifying feedback on our work and many terrific suggestions about …

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Essential tips for medical journalists

Beware whenever you hear a story about a simple blood test

Gary Schwitzer

Conditions and Diseases

August 22, 2011

After seeing the NBC Nightly News last night, a physician urged me to write about what he saw: a story about a “simple blood test that could save women’s lives.”

Readers – and maybe especially TV viewers – beware whenever you hear a story about “a simple blood test.”

And this is a good case in point.

Brian Williams led into the story stating: “Two of three women who die suddenly of cardiac heart …

Dangers of the hospital press release

Deep Ramachandran, MD

Physician

August 7, 2011

You may have noticed the rash of medical news spewing from your favorite news outlets with greater frequency. As a medical professional you probably cringe as you envision the calls that are about to flood your office, “Doctor Smith, I heard a report on the news that this drug you prescribed to help me quit smoking is bad for my health!” or, “I want a referral to The Hoffenheimer Institute …

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Dangers of the hospital press release

Advances in cancer treatment are hyped by headlines

Kevin Pho, MD

KevinMD

July 31, 2011

The following op-ed was published on June 5, 2011 in USA Today.

A patient recently asked me if I had heard about the new “wonder drugs” used to treat skin cancer. Indeed, I had. In a widely reported story in early June, two novel cancer drugs were found to benefit patients with advanced melanoma, a devastating form of skin cancer. These …

When TV news departments partner with local medical centers

Gary Schwitzer

Patient

June 21, 2011

It’s not a new phenomenon. In fact, it’s troubling how old and widespread it is.

But when TV news departments partner with, and sell news time to local medical centers, you can take the Radio-Television Digital News Association’s code of ethics and throw it out the window.

Blythe Bernhard reports in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “In St. Louis, the latest media/hospital partnership is a campaign from Barnes-Jewish Hospital and local …

The nightmare of medical research in the lay press

Doctor Grumpy, MD

Patient

June 8, 2011

The World Health Organization recently announced that cell phones “may possibly” cause cancer.

Now, I’m neither a researcher or statistician, and personally think the jury is still out on this one. I’m not going to take sides.

But here is what I am pissed off about. Notice that the story said “may possibly” cause cancer. But the way we think, it somehow becomes “does cause cancer,” and so we panic, and hold …

Do doctors have more influence than the media in cancer screening?

Kevin Pho, MD

KevinMD

June 6, 2011

Not all cancer screening saves lives.

I alluded to this recently in a New York Times’ Room for Debate piece, discussing why Medicare shouldn’t pay for prostate cancer screening in men over the age of 75.

And, when it comes to ovarian cancer screening, a recent study showed that annual CA-125 antigen testing and transvaginal ultrasound did not save lives. In …

Improve health journalism to improve consumer knowledge and decisions

Lisa Gualtieri, PhD

Patient

May 23, 2011

Gary Schwitzer is Publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, where he and his team grade daily health news coverage. He works to improve health journalism with the goal of improving consumer knowledge and decision-making. He was the founding editor-in-chief of the MayoClinic.com site. While his guest lecture at Web Strategies for Health Communication was on health news reporting, I realized that his review criteria seemed equally applicable to any health content …

Using Glee for teachable moments to teens

Natasha Burgert, MD

Patient

May 19, 2011

I am a “Gleek.” I admit it.

A Gleek is a self-described lover of Fox’s show, Glee. The show features a diverse group of teens who are in the school’s show choir. Glee focuses on the lives of these teens, in and out of school, while emphasizing certain storyline elements with entertaining Broadway musical-type performances.

The show itself, however, is not the point of this post. Last week was an unexpected …

How the quality of the scientific literature impacts the evidence

Kevin

Patient

May 18, 2011

by Tom Lang and George Lundberg, MD

A not-so-obvious truth is that evidence-based medicine is literature-based medicine.

That is, the quality of the scientific literature directly affects the quality of the evidence.

Quality, in turn, depends in large measure on reporting research completely and accurately.

In response to ample evidence that such quality is often missing from the literature, dozens of reporting guidelines, such as the CONSORT Statement for reporting randomized trials, are …

Doctor bashing and confronting physicians in the media

Kevin Pho, MD

KevinMD

May 9, 2011

It’s certainly been fascinating monitoring the response to Theresa Brown’s New York Times’ op-ed on physician bullying.

Predictably, most physicians were outraged, while the rest of the population generally supported Brown. As alluded to in a comment, whenever you have an aggrieved party accusing another one in a national forum, controversy is what you’re going to get. The piece was the …

16 and Pregnant is increasing the awareness of teen pregnancy

Jeff Livingston, MD

Patient

April 7, 2011

Recently, I had the honor of moderating a discussion for the Sex::Tech 2011 Conference with the producers of MTVs 16 and Pregnant Morgan Freeman, Dia Sokol Savage and The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

I was fascinated by the responses of members in the audience as well as the reactions I read while monitoring the online live stream via Twitter. So what did I conclude?

I concluded that the issue of teen pregnancy …

Cyberchondria repackaged as new local TV health news

Gary Schwitzer

Patient

April 4, 2011

So I’m watching the 6 pm local news last night and see a piece on KARE-11, my local NBC affiliate, about “a new buzzword called ‘cyberchonrdria'” — used to describe people who “Google their symptoms online and then worry over the multitude of results and possible diagnosis …”

But it’s clear from what they posted online that this was not …