Were journalists ‘fabulously naïve’ about human genome?
As Tinker Ready reported on the Nature Network’s Boston Blog, the luminaries gathered for Harvard’s panel on the 10-year anniversary of mapping the human genome, particularly the Broad Institute’s Eric Lander, had some strong opinions on media coverage of the event. Here’s Ready’s description of the spiciest bit:
Lander blamed the press for unrealistically high expectation for the human genome.
… Lander said that expectations for the impact of the research were “fabulously naïve. Journalists wrote about how we were going to have drugs for all these disease in the next decade. Somebody was smoking something. This was just nuts.”
The next day, on her Boston Health News blog, Ready revisited that particular quote for a bit of fact-checking. She went back to initial reports from The New York Times and USA Today, and tried to substantiate the claims of Lander, the lead author who himself wrote, at the time, that “The scientific work will have profound long-term consequences for medicine.”
Without spoiling Ready’s post, I’ll just say she found some examples of restrained, responsible journalism. Were there a few hyperbolic quotes? Yes. But they came from scientists.
Rule limits Harvard docs’ conflicts of interest
Harvard doctors will now be limited to making $5,000 a year for serving as board members for drugmakers and biotech companies, under a new rule intended to reduce the conflicts of interest in medical research.
Scott Hensley explains and rounds up the coverage on NPR’s Shots blog, with links to stories in The New York Times and The Boston Globe. Hensley writes that the new rules also prohibit taking company shares as compensation and from serving on drug companies’ speaker bureaus.
Harvard to revise policy on speaking to media
Duff Wilson of The New York Times reports that Harvard Medical School is revising a recent policy that limited students’ contact with the news media.
Students say the policy was enacted to keep them from speaking out about things such as medical conflicts of interest.
The policy says: “All interactions between students and the media should be coordinated with the Office of the Dean of Students and the Office of Public Affairs. This applies to situations in which students are contacted by the media as well as instances in which students may be seeking publicity about a student-related project or program.”
The dean of students says the policy was intended to help students but it was approved shortly after students spoke to a reporter about the influence of drug company money on faculty.
Doctors present new technologies to investors
Filed under: Conflicts of interest, Hot Health Headline
AHCJ member Tinker Ready, on Boston Health News, writes that research institutions and companies presented their inventions to investors at Harvard Medical School on Monday.
An illuminated catheter, an artificial retina, a system to shrink tonsils and a device to deliver drugs to the brain were among the products at the “Early-Stage Life Sciences Technology Conference.”
Ready points out that the “the debate over the growing overlap between academia and industry remains unresolved,” with some seeing the effort as a threat to academic integrity.
-
Join us in Atlanta
for Health Journalism 2012
Fellowship applications
due Feb. 27
New at HealthJournalism.org
- Data gives depth to investigation of patient safety
- What reporters should know about Alzheimer’s and related dementias
- Apply for fellowships to attend Health Journalism 2012
- AHCJ asks Supreme Court to permit broadcast of arguments in health reform case
- Tips for print, online journalists to embrace broadcast opportunities
- Numbers reveal how often, or how rarely, states check doctors’ disciplinary records
- How I did it: Falsified charts in nursing homes linked to patient care
- Access Denied: Looking at a lack of health care availability
- Transparency & medical errors: Public reporting of patient harm is a potent force
