How do US journalists cover treatments, tests, products, and procedures? An evaluation of 500 stories

Summary Points * The daily delivery of news stories about new treatments, tests, products, and procedures may have a profound--and perhaps harmful--impact on health care consumers. * A US Web site project, HealthNewsReview.org (http://HealthNewsReview.org/), modeled after similar efforts in Australia and Canada, evaluates and grades health news coverage, notifying journalists of their grades. * After almost two years and 500 stories, the project has found that journalists usually fail to discuss costs, the quality of the evidence, the existence of alternative options, and the absolute magnitude of potential benefits and harms. * Reporters and writers have been receptive to the feedback; editors and managers must be reached if change is to occur. * Time (to research stories), space (in publications and broadcasts), and training of journalists can provide solutions to many of the journalistic shortcomings identified by the project. The National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Knight Foundation, the Association of Health Care Journalists, and several universities now offer specialized training programs of varying lengths, degrees of complexity, and formats.