We're bombarded with health headlines 24/7, ranging from the latest Hollywood "alkaline diet" hyped this past week in Houston to the elevation of pop-star Adele's surgeon to miracle worker status.
While we can shrug off an obvious fluff piece, making important distinctions on medical studies, procedures and what truly constitutes true breakthroughs are essential when you have cancer. Were we to believe everything that's been reported, a number "highly promising" cures have been "right around the corner" on numerous occasions. Honing a critical sense is essential for effectively managing cancer care.
To help us separate the fact from fiction, boldface from embellished, I'm thrilled to welcome health care journalist and critic Gary Schwitzer to #BCSM tomorrow night. The publisher of the well-respected Health News Review will walk us through the review criteria for analyzing studies, the ABC's of health care reporting (accuracy, balance, completeness) and suggestions on making the most of reported information.
If you aren't yet following @GarySchwitzer and @HealthNewsReview, I think you should start today. It's important for your own health and critical in becoming an effective advocate for others.
Other important links for empowered health care:
If you aren't yet following @GarySchwitzer and @HealthNewsReview, I think you should start today. It's important for your own health and critical in becoming an effective advocate for others.
Other important links for empowered health care:
- Foundation for Informed Decision Making, which supports Health News
- Society for Participatory Medicine (of which I am a member)
- PCORI, established in 2010 by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
If you have specific questions you'd like addressed in tomorrow's chat please leave me a comment or drop me an email at jschoger@gmail.com.
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4 comments:
It was a great chat. Thank you!
Jody...I'm going to the read the transcript right now...Thank you for getting Gary Schwitzer on the chat! I wish I could have participated this week. I'm sorry I missed again!
Jody, sorry I missed the chat. We do need some real answers. A well-meaning person (I choose to believe) asked me in 1996 if I was prepared to die because I refused to follow the "alkaline diet" he recommended. I cried and cried. Here I am 16 years later not having adhered to any particular diet. How did I live without the alkaline one? Seriously.... X
Most women with cancer or those at high risk for cancer would feel hopeless and would give up a dream of having a family. However, evidence published in Journal of Women's Health provides these women with some hope that infertility cure does exist and it appears to work on women with cancer or women who have an increased risk of cancer.
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