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REVIEWS: Gary Schwitzer Ten troublesome trends in TV health news BMJ 2004; 329: 1352 [Full text]

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Thanks for the great article

Jennifer L. Boen   (4 December 2004)

This kind of research can improve doctor-patient relationships

Claudia B. Infante   (6 December 2004)

Thanks for the great article 4 December 2004
Jennifer L. Boen, Health reporter The (Fort Wayne) News-Sentinel Send response to journal: Re: Thanks for the great article	I am the health reporter for The News-Sentinel in Fort Wayne, and the only designated health care reporter in a community of nearly 300,000 people. For years, I have thought, privately and aloud, the very issues you raise about TV health-care reporting. Thank you, thank you for this excellent article. I have already passed it on to several public information officers of various organizations who have been frustrated with TV reporting. Jennifer L. Boen The News-Sentinel Competing interests: None declared
This kind of research can improve doctor-patient relationships 6 December 2004
Claudia B. Infante, Postgraduate professor National Autonomous University of Mexico. School of Medicine Send response to journal: Re: This kind of research can improve doctor-patient relationships	As a medical sociology researcher/postgraduate professor I find your article very interesting and highly relevant. Years ago I did some reaseach about the content of the newspaper news about abortion in Mexico and since then I have found little public and professional awarenes of the problem of the representation of reality that the health news create. At the moment I am doing research on the social construction of medical complaints and I have found that one of the greatest problems of the malpractice crisis is the biased notion of what a medical complaint is, much of this caused precisely by the way that the news about medical claims are constructed. I think that more of this type of research can be very helpful in constructing the now distorted image of what can medicine do and what are their limits. A better understanding of these problems can certanly help to have a better doctor-patient relationship and, hopefully to counterbalance the medical malpractice crisis. Competing interests: None declared