Has medical journalism sold its soul?

That’s the title of an opinion piece that an American professor of medicine, Nortin Hadler, has written for ABC News in the US.

Hadler argues that “health journalism is more beleaguered than most other specialties by the financial crunch that faces the entire Fourth Estate”, and is particularly alarmed by the influence of sophisticated medical marketing upon the media’s health coverage.

You can read his article in full here.

Hadler wrote “Worried Sick: A Prescription for Health in an Overtreated America” (which I reviewed last year for the Medical Journal of Australia) and “The Last Well Person.”