Medicine & The Media

Why is accurately communicating medical research and information so difficult?  It would be easy to blame the press for “Headline” reporting but a recent report also identifies a serious lack of “health literacy” among US patients ( http://bit.ly/EZZE).  Further, the House of Medicine (not the TV ‘House’) moves at a snails pace while the press has a cycle that seems to double at the rate of Twitter.  These results are certainly in conflict and add to mixed expectations for patients.  Additionally, both groups have goals to achieve; one is selling advertisements and the other is hoping to hear optimism about healthcare. Perhaps also, the latter would like to know, that whatever problem they get into medically, can be solved in the future.  It promotes the quick-fix mentality that both doctors and patients fall into.

The current controversies surrounding PSA screening and screening mammograms illustrate just how complicated medical communication has become.  The researchers (and practitioners) bring their bias to the table as do the writers and the patients.  We want screening to work, but the most recent results strongly suggest that there is little to no benefit for our current procedures.  Everyone is looking for simple answers, simple explanations, but they just do not exist.  It takes a lot of time in the doctor’s office to explain the pros and cons of screening for these diseases.  Time that is just not often paid for in the current US healthcare environment.

However, screening aside, we do have a clear message on prevention.  The satellite view of health and nutrition clearly shows that being overweight (or obese) increases the risk of cancer.  Recent reports re-affirm that eating too much red-meat is associated with developing cancer.  The story of smoking and lung cancer could not be more clear.  The childhood obesity is in plain-sight.

So again, are we supporting and promoting a generation that does not want to take responsibility for their health?  Seems most of us do not care too much about preventing disease but we sure want to find it early.