February 10 weekly digest from the Health News Watchdog

Weekly digest - February 10, 2014  trying to improve the public dialogue about health care   Criticism of cancer organization fundraising/awareness campaigns      "Disease Olympics" is the term some have used to describe health advocacy groups competing for attention and funding. A new pancreatic cancer awareness campaign bothered a lot of people who called it "offensive, distasteful, awful, horrendous" and much more. It had a tone of "my cancer is worse than yours."  A cancer fundraising effort toyed with the truth in begging donors to "give 6 patients the best surgery" - robotic surgery.  You need a scorecard to count the number of misleading statements in the campaign.     The Associated Press, Wall Street Journal and Reuters practiced journalism via news release and gave Pfizer free publicity for Phase 2 breast cancer drug trial results - without any of the data! And many other media organizations followed suit.  It felt like stenography more than journalism.     Not a great week for cancer media messages.    A physician-blogger criticized news coverage of "a study of a whopping two subjects" to see if, in the hospital, staff fist bumps were safer than handshakes for reducing bacteria transmission.  I also found that ABC did its own experiment - with an N of 1.  And the NBC Today Show had silly anchor banter and bumps.  Head butts may have been better.     Journal gems:  I got my weekly kicks from Dr. Richard Lehman's journal review blog on the BMJ site. Excerpt: "Oh great. Another phase 2 study of a pricey monoclonal antibody to address the 'epidemic of osteoporosis,' i.e. a pharma-driven epidemic of overdiagnosis in older women." A thoughtful perspective piece in JAMA Internal Medicine's "Less is More" series.  It was written by a physician about her own experiences turning 50 and having her doctor recommend a wave of tests.  Dr. Victor Montori and Mayo colleagues made the case in JAMA that new cholesterol guidelines show the need for shared decision-making.  And they included a video demonstration of a decision aid they produced.  http://statindecisionaid.mayoclinic.org/index.php/site/index   Gary Schwitzer                      Publisher, HealthNewsReview.org   Adjunct Associate Professor, University of Minnesota School of Public Health                                                                  This project is currently operating without funding.     Email: feedback@healthnewsreview.org or use this Contact Us form

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