Tip Sheets

Communicating Health Messages that People Don't Expect to Hear (Pamela Wescott presentation)

Panel: A reporter's guide to medical decision making (Health Journalism 2012)

Speaker: Pamela H. Wescott, MPP, Director, Patient Perspective

PDF of presentation

Panel description: It’s a curious paradox. Thanks to the Internet, health information has never been more accessible to patients. But from PSA screening to heart stents to spinal fusion surgery, many of the tests and treatments performed on patients may be unnecessary, deviating from the best medical evidence and not achieving the results patients expect. Learn what the government, hospitals and others are doing to generate more useful data to guide choices about medical care and to better inform doctors – and patients – so they make wiser decisions.