HealthNewsReview.org was a web-based project that rated the completeness, accuracy, and balance of news stories that include claims about medical treatments, tests, products and procedures.
[1][2][3][4] In its first 22 months, the website reviewed 500 news stories, and found that they usually failed to discuss evidence quality, alternative options, costs, and absolute sizes of benefits and harms.
[5] At that time, the editors of the journal PLoS Medicine wrote: "Schwitzer's alarming report card of the trouble with medical news stories is thus a wake-up call for all of us involved in disseminating health research-researchers, academic institutions, journal editors, reporters, and media organizations-to work collaboratively to improve the standards of health reporting.
[11] In 2014, Schwitzer published an article in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, providing an update on the lessons learned after 8 years with the HealthNewsReview.org project.
[12] In 2015, the project also began systematically reviewing health care news releases written by public relations professionals.