False Hopes, Unwarranted Fears The Trouble with Medical News Stories 英文参考文献.docVIP

Editorial False Hopes, Unwarranted Fears: The Trouble with Medical News Stories The PLoS Medicine Editors O n April 26, 2007, ABC World News, the American Broadcasting Corporation’s Medicine on the effects of stopping or continuing antipsychotic drugs in Alzheimer disease [5], and Behind the Headlines posted a detailed assessment of the science behind the coverage [6]. HealthNewsR uses a “often” or “nearly always” dif?cult [8]. While there are certainly studies in specialist medical journals that will be dif?cult for many people to grasp, nevertheless there may be some value in establishing a core set of scienti?c competencies for all health reporters. Indeed, the Association of Health Care Journalists’ Statement of Principles states that health reporters should “understand the process of medical research in order to report accurately” (/ secondarydetails.php?id=56). There is also a broader context ?agship television news program, aired a “good news” story about a new test for prostate cancer [1]. Against a background of a dramatic graphic showing that 1.6 million American men undergo prostate biopsy each year, the presenter announced: “Researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have developed a more accurate blood screening test.” The story was based on a new study examining the performance of early prostate cancer antigen-2 as a serum marker for prostate cancer [2]. Unfortunately, ABC failed to disclose one crucial fact: the principal investigator of this study receives a share of the royalty sales of the test and is a paid consultant to the test’s manufacturer [3]. This failure was one of a litany of weaknesses in the story. There was no discussion, for example, of the scienti?c evidence showing that the test was “more accurate” than existing screening tests or of the uncertain bene?ts and proven harms of prostate cancer screening. In this month’s PLoS Medicine, Gary Schwitzer of the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication highlights thi