Holding News on Health Care to Higher Standards


I went to a presentation about how to improve health care news coverage in the U.S., which was mostly about how many health news reports don’t cover basic issues like costs, availability or provide even a hint of context about whether something is truly broadly beneficial.

That’s noted health journalist Christine Gorman at Global Health Report about how coverage of health care in the U.S. (and internationally as well, especially when it comes to public health issues) lacks objectivity and is often driven by those with a vested interest in radically simplifying the facts.

AJN, it happens, will be meeting later this morning with one of the speakers at the Association of Health Care Journalists presentation that Gorman had just attended when she wrote her post: Gary Schwitzer,  “fomer CNN reporter and current journalism professor who founded HealthNewsReview.org.” 

healthnewsreviewScreenshot

Schwitzer is on a mission to improve health care reporting. His Web site takes major health care stories about medications, treatments, and other issues and subjects them to rigorous criteria regarding whether they provide readers crucial context, accuracy, and balance.

Nurses and patients need to know that the news about new drugs and treatments isn’t always as accurate as it could be. Critical thinking is needed, and Schwitzer is helping provide us with the tools. 

Jacob Molyneux, AJN senior editor


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2016-11-21T13:28:02-05:00May 21st, 2009|Nursing|1 Comment
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Seeds of Change? Nurses Want Prescribing Power When It Comes to Health Care Reform

"Buck Up," by zenera / via Flickr.

According to a useful overview by the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, nurses, insurers, and others are fighting to be included in the health care reform debate. We know the insurers can take care of themselves, so let’s focus on the nurses:

Hundreds of nurses last week rallied on Capitol Hill in an attempt to have their voices and opinions on health care reform heard and included as lawmakers begin to draft legislation, Roll Call reports. The rally included the California Nurses Association –  National Nurses Organizing Committee, the American Academy of Nursing, the American Nurses Association and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. According to Roll Call, some of the groups disagree on the details of reform, including whether reform should include a single-payer system, but are united in their effort to be included in discussions on overhaul legislation. Michelle Artz, a lobbyist for ANA, said, “We want to make sure this isn’t a physician-centric dialogue” (Ackley, Roll Call, 5/18).

As far as I know, the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) wasn’t actually present at that rally. But what matters is that there is growing recognition that effective health care reform will not happen without the involvement of nurses. The AAN […]

2016-11-21T13:28:10-05:00May 20th, 2009|health care policy|1 Comment
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Nurse Ethicist Weighs in on Nurses Who May Have Helped Merck Hawk Vioxx

By wonker, via Flickr. By wonker, via Flickr.

According to a story in The Australian, the drug company Merck has been accused of paying nurses to sift through patient medical records in search of potential candidates for the drug Vioxx.  Here’s what nurse ethicist Douglas Olsen, who recently wrote a two-part article (here’s part one; part two is here) for AJN on nurses and the pharmaceutical industry, wrote to us about the story:

The news report demonstrates the public’s visceral sense that the Merck program in Australia was unethical. Nurses, as well as doctors and pharmacists, can anticipate righteous indignation whenever their clinical deliberations appear compromised by a company’s desire to sell a particular drug. […]

2016-11-21T13:28:15-05:00May 19th, 2009|Ethics, Nursing, patient safety, Public health|0 Comments
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Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
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