Evaluating health stories in the news

If you aren't familiar with it, check out the web site Health News Review and blog Health News Watchdog (both newly redesigned). The site monitors and reviews health stories in the media and calls out stories that may be misleading or confusing to readers. This is an important endeavor. Part of the dynamic of communication between patients and physicians is the information that patients get from mass media sources. If that information is poorly explained, it may set unrealistic expectations in the mind of the patient, creating an additional communication challenge for the physician who now has to educate the patient and refute other claims, while still hearing and respecting the patient's concerns. So what the mass media says, and fails to say, is important. And the more voices calling out the sensationalistic and regurgitated press releases the better.

Methods for studying physician communication

The October issue of Wisconsin Medical Journal features an article from our team at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the innovative methods we used to study physician communication and parent outcomes across the entire state of Wisconsin. The article also features early results from our 4 year statewide study. You can check out the article here.

This statewide study required the cooperation of multiple agencies, as well as the efforts of staff from multiple disciplines. But ultimately we were able to demonstrate that it is possible to conduct a statewide communication study using methods that are both effective and efficient.