Many medical studies are funded by pharmaceutical companies.
A JAMA study suggests that newspaper articles reporting medical studies fail to mention this, despite the fact that the funding source can introduce bias into the conclusions.
Also, newspapers are not using generic medication names in reports. Doing so can cut down on patient confusion, as there can be several brand names for a single generic medication.
Part of the problem is that some reporters cross-cover medical stories, and are not specifically trained in the nuances that are unique to health reporting.
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- The Angry Pharmacist on the Medicare donut-hole
- Everybody loses when physician conferences restrict medical news reporting
- Do drug company logos influence medical students?
- Two nurses face jail time for reporting a doctor to the Texas Medical Board
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