10 Comments
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shoehornhands's avatar

I like this! It is indeed a helpful guide--for critical reading of *any* science journalism, not just medical journalism.

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Steven Seiden, MD, FACC's avatar

Thought I was watching a new season of Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy!

Well done!

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Ernest N. Curtis's avatar

Don't be afraid of the camera. You did a great job. The backgrounds and music were wonderful. Unfortunately, churnalism is the rule rather than the exception.

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Genevieve Signoret's avatar

You're asking a lot of journalists. Expert critics should issue their own press releases summarizing their critique.

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Michael Buratovich, Ph.D's avatar

What a great trip! Adam, don’t be so hard on yourself. The camera loves you!!

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Matt Phillips's avatar

As a retired cardiologist (due to MVA ) I am the leading referral source to one of my partners. Not worried well but serious people who need to be seen before 8 weeks and are not going to ER.

I try to keep up but lately it's like reading propaganda . Your posts and Dr Prassad have been very helpful

Thank you - Matt Phillips MD Emeritus Austin Heart

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J Lee MD PhD's avatar

Wow. A beautiful, and I mean Really Beautiful, overview presentation of important stuff Dr. Cifu. Background music was perfectly chosen, tasteful, and the volume level was just right. Production value here gets a perfect score. One flub you will surely notice when listening carefully: The obvious Verb-Subject agreement problem that jumped out when you talked about some hypothetical scenario that involved a presumed causal effect of carrying a box of matches. Lastly, this effort might have been slightly better overall (my opinion here) had you mentioned in a tad more detail the "evil sin” of confirmation bias in researchers’ minds, something for which being Really Smart is definitely not perfectly prophylactic per se. Throughout the COVID pandemic debacle, I watched many “talking heads” on cable news networks and I never once heard any interview in which the “TV journalist” asked her/his guest about the potential role of confirmation bias in a given research activity.

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Adam Cifu, MD's avatar

Thanks so much. Go easy on my grammar, it was unscripted!🙂

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Bridget Cresto's avatar

I declare Grammar Grace for the good doctor! I missed the error because I was so interested in the content and the video format.

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Paul Fitzgerald's avatar

Just watched the summary, it’s accurate and interesting, unfortunately most journalists these days write all their stories directly from their screens, rather than the sources.

I would like to suggest another sin, or a subsin of associative links.

I call it Arsesociation, when someone with a specific agenda cherry-picks a range of studies that support their agenda and ignores all the data that contradicts their case.

Our North American readers may not be familiar with the Australian reference to arse, or the common phrase that someone is “pulling something out of their arse”, but it accurately describes this activity.

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