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Communicating Medical News — Pitfalls of Health Care Journalism

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  • Susan Dentzer

Whether they realize it or not, journalists reporting on health care developments deliver public health messages that can influence the behavior of clinicians and patients. Often these messages are delivered effectively by seasoned reporters who perform thoughtfully even in the face of breaking news and tight deadlines. But all too frequently, what is conveyed about health by many other journalists is wrong or misleading. Some distortion is attributable to ignorance or an inability to interpret and convey the nuanced results of clinical studies. And some is due to uncertainty about journalists' proper role: Is our job to describe the bigger . . .

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Funding and Disclosures

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Author Affiliations

Ms. Dentzer is the editor-in-chief of Health Affairs, Bethesda, MD, and an on-air analyst on health policy for the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on the Public Broadcasting Service.

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