HealthNewsReview.org | Independent Expert Reviews of News Stories | Holding Health and Medical Journalism Accountable |
|
|
Recognize "novel efforts to involve citizens actively in public issues, to invite their participation and create entry points that stir their imagination and engagement."
Honor "the very best Web sites of healthcare providers, health plans, healthcare associations, online health companies, pharmaceutical/medical equipment firms, suppliers and other healthcare organizations."
Honor "the reporters, editors and teams of writers who hold a mirror to their own industry for the public's benefit. Honorees are recognized for news judgment and command of craft in reporting, analysis and commentary."
Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog - won the 2009 Best Medical Blog Award in competition hosted by Medgadget.com. The hosts wrote: "Gary has become renowned for his critique of media's coverage of health care topics. And that's what his blog is mostly about: checking and correcting the weak, erroneous, and misleading reporting of medical science and industry on TV and in newspapers."
The editors of the journal PLoS Medicine wrote:
"Schwitzer's alarming report card of the trouble with medical news stories is thus a wake-up call for all of us involved in disseminating health research-researchers, academic institutions, journal editors, reporters, and media organizations-to work collaboratively to improve the standards of health reporting."
The Canadian Medicine blog said:
"Gary Schwitzer is one of the most astute and intelligent critics of misleading, erroneous and fear-mongering health reporting."
The Seattle Times said:
"Schwitzer is one of the country's leading authorities on what's right and wrong about health coverage in the media."
William Heisel, journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist, wrote:
"With the creation of HealthNewsReview.org, (Gary Schwitzer) has brought back nightmares of having your work marked up in red and posted on a corkboard for everyone to see."
The top-rated KevinMD.com blog wrote:
"Gary Schwitzer is the foremost health media watchdog, with his organization rigorously monitoring the health content of major media."
Susan Perry, on her MinnPost.com column referred to the HealthNewsReview.org project as:
"indispensable to consumers & journalists"
Dan Gillmor, director of the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship at Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
"Calm and thorough analysis of health news journalism from HealthNewsReview.org"
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is considered the gold standard of preventive health recommendations - including on screening tests. It's a good source for journalists and consumers.
About 70% of the stories reviewed from 2006-9 failed to adequately discuss costs, or to explain how big (or small) are the potential benefits and harms of treatments, tests, products and procedures.
We have documented a disturbing trend of news stories taking an advocacy stance, promoting certain screening tests outside the boundaries of scientific evidence.
Stories on new technologies like Cyberknife, DaVinci robotic surgery systems, and proton beam cancer therapy often fail to scrutinize the evidence and/or to discuss the costs involved.
Rather than suggesting that everyone should be screened for everything, news stories could explain: "All screening tests cause harm; some may do good."
The first 38 network TV network morning health news stories reviewed in 2009 earned an average score of 1.2 stars. 13 of the 38 stories got ZERO stars.
Both TIME magazine and BusinessWeek have published terrific stories explaining the importance of the Number Needed to Treat - or NNT.
Knowing relative risk reduction is like knowing you have a 50% off coupon but not knowing whether it's for a Lexus or a lollipop. Absolute risk reduction tells you what the "coupon" is worth. Read more.
The website NoFreeLunch.org posts "a database of health care professionals who have pledged to accept no gifts from industry and to rely on non-promotional sources of information."
To help journalists cover stories responsibly, we post a list of independent experts who state that they do not have financial ties to drug or medical device manufacturers.
We apply the same ten standardized criteria to the review of every story.
We have about 30 story reviewers. Each story is reviewed by 3 different people.
Gary Schwitzer's seven words you shouldn't use in medical news: cure, miracle, breakthrough, promising, dramatic, hope, victim. Read why.
Our reviewers include two former CNN medical reporters and a former editor of the Washington Post health section.