Media Doctor Australia Reviewed Articles

Swine flu vaccine, child narcolepsy 'link' (rated 0 stars)

Liver test could save lives (rated 1 star)

This story conceals more than it reveals. Apart from the fact that the output is colour coded like traffic lights, it tells us nothing about the test. What does it measure? Is it a blood test, a liver biopsy, a sniffer dog or done by iridology? What was it compared to? How accurate is it? Who were the 1000 patients?

The expert comment by Gilmore is incorrect once transplanted to an Australian news site, as he says "liver disease is rising dramatically in 'this' country". Gilmore is UK hepatologist and commentator on alcohol issues in the UK so the comment probably refers to the UK rather than Australia.

Curry compound may curb type 2 diabetes risk (rated 4.5 stars)

Supplements containing a compound found in curry spice may help prevent diabetes in people at high risk, according to a Thai study.

Study helps ease joint pain (rated 1 star)

This story is remarkable for what it does not tell the reader!

Questions we'd like answered include:

What was in "the drip"?
What kind of trials were they and how many people took part?
What was in the "herbal ceam"?
How much did it "(reduce) pain and (slow) down the disease"?
What proportion of people responded to the infusion?
How long did the effects last?
What were the side effects?

These omissions make for a pretty poor story that is crowned by an opening paragraph which states the researcher has "developed three new treatments for osteoarthritis" when in fact he has developed just one.

Hunter study discovers chronic cough treatment (rated 3.5 stars)

This is a good story on a new treatment for chronic cough. Treating chronic cough could be seen as disease mongering (where sickness - and a treatment - is marketed to as large a population as possible). This doesn't mean that chronic cough isn't a problem for some people (it is) or that there is something wrong with the research (it's a high level of evidence).

The press releases for this story erred on the side of 'disease mongering' by referring to the size of the potentially affected population and the possibility of including the drug in treatment guidelines. The story remained objective by informing readers of the downside of the findings eg the treatment benefits only last while taking the tablets and that research is being done on other drugs with better side effect profiles.

The story didn't say whether the drug is approved in Australia for this condition and there was no independent comment.

Medical tool to switch off hunger pangs (rated 1.5 stars)

This story is so brief it doesn't have space to include the required detail to properly inform readers of a new treatment option.

Chocolate a sweetheart deal (rated 5 stars)

An excellent piece of reporting about a Cochrane review on the benefits of cocoa in people with high blood pressure.

New test to detect asbestos exposure (rated 3.5 stars)

There is a significant error in the headline of this story, the research is not about a test which detects asbestos exposure. It's whether people have a malignant or benign asbestos related disease: two very different things.

While the trial is in its early stages, it would be interesting to know more about the research findings so far. The claim for 88% accuracy does not tell us if the mistakes were in over diagnosis or under diagnosis - that is, were 12% of people falsely diagnosed with the fatal disease or were 12% of diagnoses missed?

Low-risk people benefit from heart drugs (rated 3.5 stars)

This is a good story which covers most aspects needed to inform readers. It makes clear these drugs are available and an extension of their current use would come at a high cost to the PBS. Diet, exercise and weight control are cited as important alternatives before drugs are considered. It also includes an excellent independent comment from the Heart Foundation. Missing was the evidence behind the findings, any adverse events associated with the drugs and exactly what the findings are: there is only reference to benefits in a low cardiovascular risk population.

Dissolvable stents for WA heart patients (rated 2.5 stars)

This story lacks lot of important information. We are told this is a new procedure 'to widen blocked coronary arteries' is better than the existing kind of stent and that results from initial trials were positive. However, no information about the trials are provided - what kind of trials were they and how 'positive' were the results, are the new stents clinically significantly better than the old ones?. Also, there's no information about the cost of this new stent compared to the existing treatment. An independent expert would have added to the story in terms of getting a second opinion.

Weights linked to lower diabetes risk (rated 3 stars)

Most guidelines recommend 3 X weekly weight training for diabetes, what is new about this study is weight training for diabetes prevention, not for diabetes. While the story provides some good description about the research and the findings, it doesn't state the level of evidence (which is relatively low for this type of study) and it doesn't seek comment from an independent source. The researcher is pretty much always going to say their study is great.

US approves first pill to help prevent HIV (rated 2.5 stars)

Readers at risk of contracting HIV would find this story interesting, but would be frustrated at its lack of information about the drug's availability in Australia, cost and side effects.

Blood test takes risk out of prenatal testing (rated 4.5 stars)

Two new blood tests being developed to replace amniocentesis are discussed in this story which covers all the important aspects around this highly sensitive area. Identifying foetal abnormalities at this stage of a pregnancy allow parents and doctors to make decision in terms of future treatment or terminating pregnancy. Therefore diagnostic accuracy for both false positive and false negatives is essential. The story covers these topics in some detail. It would have enhanced the story to have a local expert provide comment in terms of when the future of this type of testing in Australia.

HIV home testing kit approved (rated 3.5 stars)

This story is imported from an overseas news agency and describes a new HIV diagnostic test approved for use in the USA. The story clearly describes the important issues of false positive and false negative rates associated with this test but not how it compares with existing blood tests. False positives occur about 1 in every 5000 but the rate of false negative results was one is 12, which seems very high. More information about the evidence supporting the test would have been interesting. Comment from a local expert would have made the story more relevant to local readers and could have answered questions such as if and when this test will be available in Australia.

Cold virus could be used to kill cancer (rated 3.5 stars)

This story is about new research looking at a process of getting a virus that shrinks tumours, actually into the target tumour. The idea is that the once it's in the tumour, the virus will help treat the cancer, but that's not the focus of this research. It's confusing because the researcher makes comments about the potential of the virus as a treatment in terms of shrinking tumours and side effects. But in fact it's very early days for this intervention and that could have been made clearer.