HealthNewsReview.org | Independent Expert Reviews of News Stories | Holding Health and Medical Journalism Accountable

Latest Reviews

Low-Dose Omega-3 Fatty Acids Don't Protect Heart Patients

August 30, 2010

A reasonably cautious summary of a paper that had not yet been presented at a European conference at the time the story was written.
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RATING:

Study: More omega-3 fats didn't aid heart patients

August 29, 2010

This is one story that mentioned the increasing number of foods that are promoted for being "fortified" with omega-3 fatty acids.  It's been a hot marketing trend.  Maybe this study will make readers question whether such fortification is actually value added. 
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RATING:

Omega-3 margarines fail to help in heart study

August 29, 2010

One of three stories we reviewed on this paper in the NEJM. (Also see the AP and HealthDay stories.) Not a bad high-level overview. Love the quote that suggests that health care - like politics - sometimes isn't swayed much by evidence.
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RATING:

Gaining on death, cooling therapy catches on slowly

August 26, 2010

Reuters Health digs deep and wide on this one, affords the story a lot of space, and delivers readers a very good story.
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RATING:

'Breakthrough' melanoma drug shrinks tumors, may prolong life*

August 25, 2010

This story was well done and deserves a high 4-star rating.  But the online version (at least) delivered key caveats and context in the sidebar, not in the main text, and these key points may have been missed. (See reviews of HealthDay & Reuters stories.)
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RATING:

Gary's Blog

Sep 1, 2010

Prevention Magazine: we said we'd be watching you and we are!

The September issue of Prevention magazine inaccurately headlines a story, "4 Ways Coffee Cures." There's no solid proof that coffee cures anything - unless some of you cure bacon with java, which I don't want to know about. What the story (below) did was to try to present a cute little graphic summary of observational studies that show a statistical association between increasing coffee consu

Aug 31, 2010

NYT prostate cancer patient/writer reviews "Invasion of Prostate Snatchers"

Aug 31, 2010

Fanning the flames of Favre's ankle health news - without educating anyone

Aug 30, 2010

Radio program on HealthNewsReview.org & health journalism

Aug 30, 2010

Story of Medtronic's Infuse product - from revolutionary advance to public health alert

Aug 27, 2010

Where was the hospital competition/expansion angle in story of hospital job cuts?

Aug 26, 2010

Profile of HealthNewsReview.org on Journal of Participatory Medicine

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.


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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.

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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.


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We have documented a disturbing trend of news stories taking an advocacy stance, promoting certain screening tests outside the boundaries of scientific evidence.


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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.

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Rather than suggesting that everyone should be screened for everything, news stories could explain: "All screening tests cause harm; some may do good."

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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.

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Both TIME magazine and BusinessWeek have published terrific stories explaining the importance of the Number Needed to Treat - or NNT.

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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.


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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."

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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.

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We apply the same ten standardized criteria to the review of every story.

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We have about 30 story reviewers. Each story is reviewed by 3 different people.

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Gary Schwitzer's seven words you shouldn't use in medical news: cure, miracle, breakthrough, promising, dramatic, hope, victim. Read why.

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Our reviewers include two former CNN medical reporters and a former editor of the Washington Post health section.

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