Trying to improve the public dialogue about health care

As soon as I saw this BMJ news release, I shuddered. For the 5th time, I wrote about news releases from this journal that fail to explain that association ≠ causation. This time I may have gotten through, as a BMJ editor promises to include such language in future news releases about observational studies. (See exchange of comments at the end of the blog post.) It's just a matter of adding a few little words.

In response to some sensational headlines, we called for a slowdown on making claims for a semen test for prostate cancer. This was another example in which a news release steered much coverage.

Sam's Club served up a free PSA screening as a Father's Day promotion. We asked whether there was value in such a free screening.

Two expensive technologies increasingly used for prostate cancer treatment - robotic surgery and proton beam radiation - drew our attention:

Robotic surgery news coverage & marketing messages - a double whammy of misrepresentation of evidence

Proton beam therapy - radiation oncology group weighs in on the evidence (and lack thereof)

We published a guest post from a woman dissatisfied with a GE "Let's Talk Mammo" event. What really got her was how false positives were downplayed - as they often are.

We also focused on three recurring themes in health care news:

Head for the hills whenever you hear news stories that make claims like "simple tests could save lives and money."

The complicated topic of the debate over the evidence about harms of saturated fat deserves a lot better attention than ABC Nightline's simplistic, book-promoting approach.

Questions about how predictive and productive is animal research - with a fresh example of how journalism can sensationalize mouse studies headlined "Cancer pill fights disease and gives lifelong protection." It took 200 words and 8 sentences to get around to the fact the latest study was in mice.

Finally, after appearing recently on the popular On the Media program on National Public Radio in the US, I was flattered to appear on Australia's ABC radio national program, Media Report, with veteran journalist Richard Aedy. Smart host for another smart media analysis radio program.

I'm currently working on a grant proposal to keep this effort alive - actually to expand our efforts into initiatives. I'll keep you posted. As always, thanks for your continued interest and support.