March 18th, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in News, Opinion
Tags: Errors, Health Journalism, Health News Release, Health Reporting, Influence, Journalism, Press Release
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A new post on the Embargo Watch blog, “The power of the press release: A tale of two fish oil-chemotherapy studies,” addresses an issue that had me running around in circles for hours last week.
Some news organizations were reporting on a paper in the journal Cancer, reporting that it had been published in that day’s online edition.
But it hadn’t been – not when the stories were published.
Instead, all I could find was a study by the same authors on the same topic that had been published in the same journal two weeks prior.
What apparently happened, as Embargo Watch surmises as well, is that many journalists simply covered what was in the journal’s news release – not what had already been published two weeks prior – which was a more impressive article. And they rushed to publish before the new study had even been posted online – all over a very short-term study in a small number of people. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
March 17th, 2011 by Felasfa Wodajo, M.D. in News
Tags: FDA, Medical Apps, Medical Device, Mobile Medical Apps, Regulation
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The regulatory status of medical apps, i.e mobile medical software, has been in limbo for some time now while observers have been watching the FDA for clues as to what role it will play. Clearly, some apps do play a role in guiding physicians in making diagnoses or making treatment decisions. Others simply provide information that would otherwise be available in textbooks or online.
What the FDA will consider a medical device or not has been an important topic, with many clues that it will consider its provenance broadly, as we have reported previously. As of now, only a few medical apps have been granted FDA approval, including AirStrip and MobileMIM.
According to the medical device consulting firm Emergo, the FDA said conclusively that they will be starting regulatory review of medical apps starting in 2011 at the recent FDA townhall meeting on March 10: Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at iMedicalApps*
March 15th, 2011 by PJSkerrett in Health Tips, News
Tags: Chernobyl, Endocrinology, Failing Nuclear Power Plant, Harvard Health Blog, Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Heart Letter, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Iodine-131, Japan, Oncology, PJ Skerrett, Potassium Iodine Pills, Potassium-Rich Diet, Radiation Exposure, Radiation Risks, Radiation-Induced Thyroid Cancer, Radioactive Fallout, Radioactive Steam, Radioactive Substance, Seafood-Rich Diet, Thyroid Gland, Thyroid Hormone
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One of the most abundant substances in the cloud of radioactive steam released by a failing nuclear power plant is iodine-131 — a radioactive form of the element iodine that is found throughout nature. Iodine-131 poses a special health risk because of its cancer-causing effect on the thyroid gland.
The small, butterfly-shaped thyroid sits just below the voice box. From this perch, it controls how fast every cell in the body changes food into energy. The gland’s main product, thyroid hormone, governs the function of the digestive tract, brain, heart, nerves, muscles, bones, skin, and more.
Iodine is a key ingredient that goes into making thyroid hormone. We get this element from ocean-caught or ocean-farmed fish and shellfish, milk, cheese, yogurt, eggs, and fruits and vegetables grown in iodine-rich soil.
The human body is surprisingly good at absorbing iodine and storing it in the thyroid gland. That’s a problem when iodine-131 is released into the atmosphere. The thyroid stores it as readily as natural, non-radioactive iodine. As iodine-131 builds up in the thyroid gland, it emits bursts of radiation that can damage DNA and other genetic material. Such damage can remove the normal limits to cell growth and division. Unchecked growth of thyroid tissue is thyroid cancer.
Iodine-131 gets into the body several ways. A person can breathe in radioactive steam released by a nuclear power plant. Fallout — radioactive particles that fall out of the atmosphere and settle onto plants, soil, and water — further adds to the burden when a person eats iodine-131 enriched fruits and vegetables or drinks water containing the isotope. Milk is another vehicle — cows that eat grass sprinkled with iodine-131 make milk that contains it. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Harvard Health Blog*
March 14th, 2011 by GarySchwitzer in News, Research
Tags: ABC News, Association Vs. Causation, Cause-And-Effect, CBS News, Coffee Consumption, Correct Medical Language, Duke University Medical Center, Evidence-Based Health Reporting, Gary Schwitzer, HealthDay, HealthNewsReview.org, Inaccurate Health Reporting, Journalism Credibility, Media Inaccuracy, Misinterpreted Observational Studies, Responsible Health Reporting, Risks vs. Benefits, Science and Medicine Reporting, Stroke Risk, USA Today
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Here we go again. Headlines across America blaring lines like, “Coffee may reduce stroke risk.”
It was a big study, but an observational study. Not a trial. Not an experiment. And, as we say so many times on this website that you could almost join along with the chorus, observational studies have inherent limitations that should always be mentioned in stories. They can’t prove cause and effect. They can show a strong statistical association, but they can’t prove cause and effect. So you can’t prove benefit or risk reduction. And stories should say that.
USA Today, for example, did not explain that in its story. Nor did it include any of the limitations that were included in, for example, a HealthDay story, which stated:
“The problem with this type of study is that there are too many factors unaccounted for and association does not prove causality, said Dr. Larry B. Goldstein, director of the Duke Stroke Center at Duke University Medical Center.
“Subjects were asked about their past coffee consumption in a questionnaire and then followed over time. There is no way to know if they changed their behavior,” Goldstein said.
And, he noted, there was no control for medication use or other potential but unmeasured factors.
“The study is restricted to a Scandinavian population, and it is not clear, even if there is a relationship, that it would be present in more diverse populations. I think that it can be concluded, at least in this population, that there was not an increased risk of stroke among coffee drinkers,” he said.”
When you don’t explain the limitations of observational studies — and/or when you imply that cause and effect has been established — you lose credibility with some readers. And you should. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Gary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog*
March 11th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in News, Opinion
Tags: AED, Athlete's Health, Automatic External Defibrillator, Cardiac Electrophysiology, Cost of Screening Tests, Defensive Medicine, Detecting Heart Disease, Dr. John Mandrola, Dr. Manny Alvarez, ECG, Echocardiography, Fox News, HCM, Healthcare reform, Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy, Incidentalomas, Long QT Syndrome, LQTS, Overtesting, Pre-Participation Medical Screening for Athletes, SCD, Sports Medicine, Sudden Cardiac Death, U.S. Healthcare System, Universal Cardiac Screening, Unnecessary Tests, Ventricular Fibrillation, Wes Leonard, Young Athletes
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It’s heart wrenching when young athletes die of sudden cardiac death (SCD). Last week the death of Wes Leonard, a Michigan high school star athlete, was especially poignant since he collapsed right after making the game-winning shot. This sort of tragedy occurs about one hundred times each year in America. That’s a lot of sadness. The obvious question is: Could these deaths be prevented? Let’s start with what actually happens.
Most cases of sudden death in young people occur as a result of either hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), an abnormal thickening of heart muscle, or long QT syndrome (LQTS), a mostly inherited disease of the heart’s electrical system. Both HCM and LQTS predispose the heart to ventricular fibrillation — electrical chaos of the pumping chamber of the heart. The adrenaline surges of athletic competition increase the odds of this chaos. Unfortunately, like heart disease often does, both these ailments can strike without warning.
Sudden death is sad enough by itself, but what makes it even worse is that both these ailments are mostly detectable with two simple painless tests: The ECG and echocardiogram (heart ultrasound). Let’s get these kids ECGs and echos then. “Git ‘er dun,” you might say.
On the surface the solution seems simple: Implement universal cardiac screening of all young athletes. And you wouldn’t be alone in thinking this way. You could even boast the support of Dr. Manny Alvarez of Fox News and the entire country of Italy, where all athletes get ECGs and echos before competing. But America isn’t Italy, and things aren’t as simple as Fox News likes to suggest. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
