Pfizer-funded workshop raises questions of ethics
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Health journalism, Pharmaceuticals
Christopher Weaver, in a piece from Kaiser Health News and NPR, writes about a Pfizer-funded seminar for journalists. To attend the annual seminar about cancer, hosted by the National Press Foundation, 15 journalists get an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C.
Health care journalists, including HealthNewsReview.org’s Gary Schwitzer and AHCJ president Charles Ornstein, say reporters need to be careful and avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Foundation president Bob Myers says the pharmaceutical company does not have input on the meeting and an attendee of last year’s meeting, AHCJ member Joy Robertson, says she doesn’t remember Pfizer ever being mentioned at the event.
Commenters on the KHN/NPR include AHCJ members Ornstein; Andrew Holtz, M.P.H. (also a board member); Elaine Schattner, M.D.; and Schwitzer. Schattner, a licensed, non-practicing physician and medical educator, says “This is precisely how Pfizer and other companies try to influence physicians who, in their sometimes-arrogance, tend to think they’re “above” subtle persuasion. Are journalists any better?”
Journalist Merrill Goozner also has written about the seminar and says that that Pfizer has dictated the overall agenda:
Pfizer didn’t make an unrestricted grant to a journalism training organization. The money is being spent to train journalists in how to cover cancer.
Goozner points out, as does Holtz in his comment on the NPR/KHN piece, that “journalism spends less on training than almost any other profession” and that journalists have few opportunities to get out of the newsroom for professional education.
Covering Health wrote about this seminar and this issue last year. It’s worth noting, as we did then, that the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism seek to minimize the possibility and appearance of inappropriate influence from outside parties. Pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and medical device makers are examples of organizations with with AHCJ will not partner. Read AHCJ’s complete fundraising policies.
AHCJ’s Statement of Principles, which identifies challenges that health care reporters face and suggests how to meet those challenges, addresses the topic:
- Refuse gifts, favors, and special treatment. Refuse meals from drug companies and device manufacturers and refuse to accept unsolicited product samples sent in the mail.
- Weigh the potential benefits involved in accepting fees, honoraria, free travel, paid expenses from organizers of conferences or events against the desire to preserve our credibility with the audience and the need to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
- Also weigh the potential benefits of accepting awards from organizations sponsored by an entity with a vested interest in health care against our need for credibility.
- Weigh the potential conflict in accepting support from public, private, or foundation sources.
M.D. journalist suggests guidelines for dual roles
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Health journalism
Tom Linden, M.D., looks at the role of physician reporters in covering disasters, particularly in light of the Haiti earthquake which saw a number of high-profile physician reporters cover the story and render care.
As Linden points out in the Electronic News journal, the networks promoted their reporters’ medical efforts and showed them providing care. He brings up a number of relevant questions about the duties of a physician reporter, whether network s or stations should promote them providing care, privacy of patients and more.
Beyond asking questions and discussing the implications of such coverage and promotion, Linden proposes a set of guidelines “to help clarify boundaries between medical and journalistic practices.”
In short, he says it’s bad journalism and inappropriate for physician reporters to report on themselves providing care.
When physician journalists become the story, medical reporting loses its way.
Linden, a professor of medical journalism in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the medical and science journalism program, is no stranger to the subject, as he has worked as a medical journalist for CNBC and local news stations.
Related
- Press release about Linden’s piece
- Debate over M.D. reporters in Haiti continues
- Doctor or journalist? Roles become blurred in Haiti
Medical groups voluntarily tighten ethics rules
Filed under: Health data, Health journalism, Hot Health Headline
Writing for NPR’s health blog, Maggie Mertens reports that while recently passed reform legislation includes the “Physician Payments Sunshine Act” (PDF) that will require companies to report any payments or gifts to physicians over $10 in value starting in 2012 (and reported and made available in a public database in 2013), some groups are getting a jump on the rules and voluntarily tightening their own conflict of interest policies.
Take, for instance, the recent decision by a bunch of medical specialty groups to stop taking industry money when coming up with guidelines for treatment. The Council of Medical Specialty Sciences, representing groups like the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, unveiled new rules on conflicts of interest last week. Thirteen of the member groups have adopted them so far, with the others saying they aren’t far behind. The rules also require that all funding from pharmaceutical and device-making companies to board members or groups will be publicly disclosed. Swag at medical conferences becomes a no-no, although big drugmakers had said a few years back they were going to stop the giveaways of medicine-branded pens, logoed tote bags and that sort of thing anyway.
For a discussion of the challenges reporters face when investigating conflicts of interest, read Elizabeth Bahm’s AHCJ article about a related panel at the recent Health Journalism 2010 conference, and this related article by John Fauber.
Reporter’s requests were on behalf of investigators
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Health journalism
In recent days, news coverage has detailed how a freelance health journalist was hired by a private investigative firm to file Freedom of Information Act requests seeking information on the activities of an official at the Food and Drug Administration. In the requests the reporter filed, the Politico story said, she requested information in her capacity as a journalist and did not mention being paid by the firm.
The journalist, who is not a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, confirmed to Politico that she filed the request on behalf of the firm, but said “she hoped the FOIAs would yield an interesting story.” AHCJ has not investigated the details of the matter.
AHCJ’s Statement of Principles disapproves of reporters identifying themselves as journalists while working, even in part, for a non-news organization.
The statement calls for independence and integrity. It says: “Health care journalists should remember that their loyalties reside with the truth and with the needs of the community.”
It calls for independence from the “agendas and timetables of journals, advocates, industry and government agencies … We are the eyes and ears of our audiences/readers; we must not be mere mouthpieces for industry, government agencies, researchers or health care providers.”
With layoffs and cutbacks in the news industry, AHCJ President Charles Ornstein said it is understandable that some journalists must seek corporate work to earn money. However, he said, journalists must not use their journalism credentials to seek out information for such non-journalism clients and should always disclose their correct affiliation when soliciting information.
Debate over M.D. reporters in Haiti continues
Discussion and debate continues about the ethics of reporters also serving as doctors in Haiti. [Earlier post]
The Washington Post’s Paul Farhi spoke to some network officials - including Paul Friedman, executive vice president of CBS News, who “says that competitive issues have factored in boosting [Dr. Jennifer] Ashton’s role since [CNN's Dr. Sanjay] Gupta became a star.”
In Baltimore, The Sun’s Kelly Brewington posted the question of whether doctors can also be reporters to readers in that paper’s “Picture of Health” blog.. Curtis Brainerd, on the Columbia Journalism Review’s Web site, wrote about the concerns being raised over the dual roles doctor/reporters are serving in.
Last week, the Society of Professional Journalists released a statement cautioning journalists to not become part of the story. When some people, including new media professor and blogger Jeff Jarvis, interpreted that to mean reporter/doctors should not treat patients, the discussion became more heated. Blogger Tyler Dukes took on Jarvis’ denigration of SPJ’s statement, saying that Jarvis “chose to argue his points with hyperbole and distortion.”
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation discussed the issue on the Jan. 21 edition of its “As it Happens” show. [Listen]
On Jan. 27, National Public Radio’s media correspondent David Folkenflik appeared on New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth and talked about how much of a role should a reporter perform in the midst of a story.
Folkenflik, who has spoken to ABC’s Dr. Richard Besser and NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman, says, “The real question is ‘Is it required for them to tell those stories through their own experiences? Are they somehow diverting attention from those who might need it most by focusing their camera and their aid on these, these people and are they in some ways subtley changing the nature of outcomes there?”
Folkenflik says, “Nobody’s saying these people shouldn’t help” but that “The question is ‘Is there any need to keep the camera rolling while they do it?’ I think that’s fundamentally the issue.”
NPR’s On the Media delved into the topic on Jan. 22, with Neal Shapiro, president of WNET Public Television in New York and former president of NBC News; AHCJ member Gary Schwitzer, of the University of Minnesota and publisher of Health News Review; Bob Steele, a journalism ethicist at DePaul University and member of the Poynter Institute’s faculty; and Dr. Bob Arnot, former chief medical correspondent for NBC News.
Arnot, who has intervened medically while on assignment - without the cameras rolling - pinpointed some of the concerns of performing medical procedures on camera:
DR. BOB ARNOT: Look, the real risk is here that your producer calls up and says, hey we just saw the other network’s doctor deliver a baby, could you do an amputation. There’s a real risk that doctors could be pushed into things they shouldn’t be doing because of the pressure of the suits or the producers, to just get better ratings.
BOB GARFIELD: Things they shouldn’t do, he says, such as treating somebody in the street who can just as easily and more safely be attended to at a clinic or hospital, and such as exploiting the pain of an earthquake victim, not to mention the emotions of the audience, for three minutes of drama, genuine or otherwise.
DR. BOB ARNOT: Absolutely, I mean, look-it. If this happened on the streets of New York, do you think you could do that with the current HIPAA regulations? So, sure, you’re potentially exploiting the patient, and you are becoming more of a showman than you are a medical doctor out there.
Ifill digs into health reform lobbying money
PBS Newshour’s Gwen Ifill filed a report on the staggering sums of money spent on lobbying by various industries whose balance sheets are riding on the outcome of health care reform.
She leads with big numbers from the Center for Responsive Politics, including $400 million from the health care sector and $120 million from insurers in the first nine months of 2009 alone. To drive those numbers home, the Center’s Dave Levinthal even called it one of the “biggest lobbying efforts ever on a single piece of legislation that the United States has ever seen.”
According to Levinthal, health reform’s unique combination of a massive industry and a long, drawn-out process has created a sort of perfect storm for lobbyists. He added that, while strides have been made since the Abramoff days, lobbyists still have a long way to go in the transparency department. An analysis released by the center finds that “the senators who opposed the health insurance reform bill passed on Christmas Eve received an average of nearly 30 percent more political donations from political action committees and individual employees of health and health insurance-related groups and companies since 1989.”
Report focuses on researchers’ conflicts of interest
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Government, Studies
There are vulnerabilities in how financial conflicts of interest are handled by NIH-funded researchers, according to a report (PDF, 46 pages) released today by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General. Among the findings:
- 90 percent of the grantee institutions rely solely on the researchers’ discretion to determine which financial interests are required to be reported
- because nearly half of the grantee institutions do not require researchers to provide specific amounts of equity or compensation on their financial disclosure forms, specific financial interests of NIH-funded researchers are often unknown
- grantee institutions do not routinely verify the information submitted by researchers about their financial interests
- some grantee institutions lack documentation to support their oversight of financial conflicts of interest
- the majority of grantee institutions do not have policies and procedures that address subgrantee compliance with federal regulations regarding financial conflicts of interest
- conflicts were not reported by grantee institutions to NIH in a consistent format
- grantee institutions are not required to report to NIH any financial interests that they have with outside companies
The inspector general’s review focused on the 41 grantee institutions that submitted financial conflict-of-interest reports to NIH in fiscal year 2006.
The review found that the most common financial conflict of interest is equity ownership (including stock and stock options) in companies in which the researchers’ financial interests could significantly affect the grant research.
Other financial conflicts of interest among researchers involved inventing technology, consulting, or holding positions with outside companies. To manage financial conflicts of interest, grantee institutions often require researchers to disclose conflicts in research publications; however, grantee institutions rarely reduce or eliminate financial conflicts of interest.
The report includes a number of recommendations – that it has previously recommended – to improve the reporting of financial conflicts of interest.
Covering Health: First year’s most popular posts
With a year of posts behind us, we thought it would be a good time to look back and see what posts proved to be the most popular – or at least the most read:
- Lewin group linked to private insurers
- Autism news raises question: When is an embargo not an embargo?
- Hensley joins NPR’s expanding health team
- Report: $25,000 buys access to Post’s health reporters
- CDC monitors H1N1 swine flu-human reassortment
- Oransky to take helm at Reuters Health
- Top N.Y. neurosurgeons suspended, sued
- Pharma industry still finding its way in social media
- Hospital says it gives content to short-staffed media
- Kuklo scandal spotlights DoD/Medtronic ties
- ‘Playing through’ concussions is damaging
- Where to find the facts on health care reform
- CBS questions CDC’s H1N1 prevalence estimates
- VA officials seize reporter’s audio recording
- Oprah’s health advice needs a shot in the arm
- Autism and vaccines: A failure to communicate
- Will pharmacists play a role in H1N1 vaccinations?
- Covering Obama’s stance on stem cell research
- Appleby to report for Kaiser Health News
- Prevention vs. treatment in global health
- FDA staff calls for end to corruption, wrongdoing
- Mentally ill patients, elderly mix in nursing homes
- Three health-care issues Obama, Congress will face
- Jost discusses consumer-driven health plans
- Tim Tebow’s head fuels concussion debate
Hospital says it gives content to short-staffed media
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Health journalism, Health policy, Hospitals
Lindsey Miller of Ragan Communications Inc., a publisher of corporate communications, writes that Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has found a way to “spread its message“ – by providing content to the area’s short-staffed television stations. [Update: The link to that article has since been moved behind a pay wall.]
The hospital’s director of marketing communications says she has flipped the problem of reduced local medical reporting due to layoffs to her advantage by providing features and experts to help fill the gap, particularly at TV stations such as Boston’s Fox affiliate.
- For example, Beth Israel’s hand surgery numbers had been down lately, so [director of marketing Rhonda] Mann pitched a four- to five-minute segment on carpal tunnel syndrome, making one of the hospital’s surgeon available to talk about the condition. Now, every month or so, the station brings in someone from Beth Israel to present common health tips. Doing so fills time and gives anchors a topic to promote for the next day.
Mann says stations are looking for health content “because a lot of the first people laid off covered a beat, health in particular. She provides examples of how she helps producers:
- To fill that void, Mann pitches health topics of general interest — such as back pain, headaches, heartburn — and boils them down into five easy-to-remember tips or facts. She also makes it easy for the station by offering to do the work.
A quick search of the WFXT-Boston Web site found a number of stories featuring the hospital’s doctors:
AHCJ left phone and e-mail messages with the station yesterday in an attempt to get its comments. If we hear from the station, we will update this post.
According to the article, Mann also provides health content, from hospital publications, to TuBoston, described as “the largest Spanish newspaper in New England.”
AHCJ and the Society of Professional Journalists have urged news outlets to avoid arrangements with hospitals that improperly influence health coverage, saying unethical partnerships interfere with independent news coverage of health care. That includes broadcasting news or interviews prepared by hospitals.
Doctor calls for principles in health reporting
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Health journalism
Nortin Hadler, M.D., in an opinion piece for ABC News, writes about his worries for health journalism. Hadler, who is on the advisory board for the health and medical journalism program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says that health journalism is threatened more than other reporting specialties by the financial pressures the media industry is experiencing.
He points out that health reporting is a specialty in journalism and calls for appropriately trained, responsible health journalists. He points to AHCJ’s statement of principles and says living up to them is a “challenge that is met unevenly.”
Hadler expresses concern “about the decimation of the ranks of health journalists. I understand the appeal of ‘press releases’ and the greater appeal of such that accumulate on Web sites; convenience can unburden the journalists assigned to cover more than is possible and cost-effectiveness can unburden the publisher whose cash flow is so tenuous.”
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Spend a week at the CDC studying public health, meeting sources. Apply for the AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellowships today!
- Reporting on the intersection of health, environment
- Tip sheet: Covering cuts to Medicare reimbursements
- Briefing: Reporting on health reform between now and 2014
- Covering high-risk insurance pools: Tips for reporters
- Health care reform has passed: What's next?
- Health and education: Covering these intersecting beats
- Reporting on the business of health care
- Health reporting resources for journalists on state and local government beats
