How can journalists do a better job reporting on the principles of shared decision making

The news media have the potential to dramatically affect the public dialogue about health care, the clinical encounter between patients and physicians, and individual decision making. That has been the motivation for the HealthNewsReview.org project since 2006, a project that reviews health care news stories that include claims of efficacy about health care interventions. A team of reviewers has evaluated nearly 2,000 such stories and found that the majority fail to address five leading questions that consumers need answered about the tradeoffs involved in health care choices. Fixing these flaws is not difficult, but requires a different editorial management mindset and a better connection between messengers and consumers.