On March 26, 2013, the CVPH Foundation sponsored an excellent lecture by Dr. Wouter Rietsema, entitled "Medicine and the Media." Here are some of the key points that Dr. Rietsema presented:
Scientific evidence is always evolving, and is more complicated than the media can usually present.
Be skeptical if you read an article about medicine or health that contains any of these words: cure, breakthrough, causes, prevents, victim
If you are interested in health news, scan the news as you normally would, but ask yourself "If this is true, would it affect me?"
If you answer yes, dig deeper to find out more and decide for yourself if the evidence is strong. And certainly talk to your physician!
Dr. Rietsema is Vice President and Chief Quality and Information Officer at CVPH. He is board certified in infectious disease and internal medicine.
Good sources to go to when you want to dig deeper into health news include these websites:
| National Institutes of Health | Centers for Disease Control |
| American Cancer Society | Cleveland Clinic |
| Mayo Clinic | WebMD |
WebMD has a number of free apps, including apps to check symptoms, look up drugs, find physicians, track your pregnancy or coach you through pain.
MedlinePlus offers reliable, up-to-date health information, anytime, anywhere, for free. Search here for health information you can trust.
NOVELNY, the New York Online Virtual Electronic Library, is a public no-cost online information network that provides access to electronic books, e-journals, and full text magazines and articles. You can log in anywhere with your library card number.