Poor Medical Reporting

In the following story ABC News: New Way to Blast Fat Without Surgery Looks Promising which also aired on ABC, the media continues to do the readers and listeners a disservice. This story basically turns a normal state of health (fat turnover) into a medical issue and the report is basically disease-mongering

This story as reported lacked:

• evidence


• discussion of hard data results in the alleged 50,000 people who've had it


• discussion of potential harms


• and really no specifics of any sort

Although the piece mentioned that over 50,000 people have received this treatment, there was absolutely no critical assessment about the claims made by clinicians who sell this service or device. It was stated that there were no long term studies associated with this product; but what about short term evidence? If 50,000 people have had it, certainly there must be some evidence to talk about.

While there was mention of a 4-6 cm loss in circumference there was no background about the study or studies used to generate it.

Lastly, the report concludes by mentioning that someone on the news staff has volunteered to go to Canada to try this out and that they will monitor her results. This sends the inaccurate message that the experience of a single individual is a reasonable substitute for rigorous, scientific research on a topic.

None of us should be surprised by this poor use of air time as we have grown accustomed to mediocrity in the reporting from mainstream media.