Health News Review

From MedBib.com - Medicine & Nature

Health News Review
Home page illustrating latest story reviews and highly-related stories
URL http://healthnewsreview.org/
Slogan grades for health news reporting
Commercial? no
Type of site Review website
Registration optional
Available language(s) English
Owner Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making
Created by Gary Schwitzer
Launched 2006-04-16
Current status online

Health News Review is a website that rates the completeness, accuracy, and balance of U.S. news stories about health care. It builds on other similar initiatives, such as the Media Doctor website in Australia and the Behind the Headlines project in the UK. Its 10-point grading scale includes whether a story gives information about its sources and their competing interests, quantifies the benefits of a treatment, and appraises the evidence supporting the story's claims.[1]

The website monitors the Associated Press, the three leading U.S. newsweekly magazines, and the top 50 U.S. newspapers, measured by circulation. In its first 22 months, the website reviewed 500 news stories, and found that they usually failed to discuss evidence quality, alternative options, costs, and absolute sizes of benefits and harms; 41 (8%) of the stories got the highest scores, and are listed at their website.[2]

Gary Schwitzer, the founder of Health News Review, was formerly a journalist at CNN and founded the website while teaching journalism at the University of Minnesota.[3]

References

  1. ^ The PLoS Medicine Editors (2008). "False hopes, unwarranted fears: the trouble with medical news stories". PLoS Med 5 (5): e118. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050118. PMID 18507502. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0050118. 
  2. ^ Schwitzer G (2008). "How do US journalists cover treatments, tests, products, and procedures? an evaluation of 500 stories". PLoS Med 5 (5): e95. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050095. PMID 18507496. http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.0050095. Lay summary – Guardian (2008-06-21). 
  3. ^ Holtz A (2007). "A case report of media reporting: the controversy about CT screening for lung cancer". Oncol Times 29 (14): 28–39. http://oncology-times.com/pt/re/oncotimes/fulltext.00130989-200707250-00009.htm. Retrieved on 1 September 2008. 
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