讀書筆記：Medical Journalism

Medical Journalism: Exposing Fact, Fiction, Fraud
Ragnar Levi

呢本成廿年前出（2001），睇二手書網時見到，搵過libgen無、BMJ有篇review評價唔錯就買嚟睇下。

一開頭講醫療報導係要做乜、處理咩議題、有咩限制同困難等。之後就講醫學證據，例如研究有咩類型、點樣睇啲研究同要問咩問題（真係連埋個list）。作者仲特別寫咗一個section叫做「Four Reasons to Question “Promising” Treatments」，話希望幫啲記者見到有人sell啲“promising treatments”時唔可以維持critical。

其中一章直頭叫做「Pitfalls in Medical Reporting」，列咗10個常見陷阱︰

1. Reducing reporting to quoting
2. Treating specialists as generalists
3. Confusing science fiction with scientific facts
4. Being misled by number games
5. Depending on anecdotes for evidence
6. Failing to question findings about a treatment's effect
7. Extrapolating from research to clinical practice
8. Hyping a study's clinical implications
9. Mistaking risk factors for diseases
10. Misjudging risks

之後就去講critical medical journalism，除咗誤報、誇大研究結果等問題外，呢本書特別指出醫療記者（同其他beat相比）較依賴source（至少當時啦），呢部分強調要獨立evaluate返唔同證據——包括訪問過嘅專家，其中一個section再講埋啲cognitive bias避免self-deception。

最後兩章就講下啲可以做嘅題目，同埋列咗啲網上資源（睇返廿年前睇咩網站都有趣，有啲應該消失咗但可以去Wayback Machine搵返）。

呢本類似係啲handbook咁，幾完整又夠簡單，百零頁好快睇晒（只係睇完拖咗好耐先記一記低）。