text_1: Nonsurgical treatment can correct congenital ear malformations in infants
text_2: Infant ear, before and after. Image: Becon Medical website The news release focuses on a recent journal article that evaluates the use of a nonsurgical treatment called the “EarWell system” to treat malformations of the ear in newborn infants. The news release reports that results were judged “good to excellent” for most patients in the retrospective study. However, the release poses some significant problems for readers. For example, the release doesn’t discuss cost and does not tell readers that the study co-author quoted extensively is the inventor of the EarWell system. The release also treats ear deformation and ear malformation interchangeably — a distinction made clearly in the relevant journal article. This is particularly important because the numbers discussed in the news release sometimes refer to patients with deformities and sometimes to patients with malformation. Ear malformations and ear deformations are not the same thing. As the journal article itself makes clear, “deformations are characterized by a misshapen but fully developed pinna [or external portion of the ear] with no missing skin or cartilage,” whereas “malformations demonstrate a partial absence of skin and/or cartilage resulting in an underdeveloped pinna from an error in embryologic development.” The headline, section headline and first three paragraphs all refer solely to malformations. Deformity is mentioned for the first time in paragraph four, and in such a way as to make many (if not most) readers assume the terms deformity and malformation are interchangeable. But they’re not interchangeable. Here’s one reason that matters: the release later tells readers that “results were judged good to excellent in 97 percent of ears with one simple deformity.” And, based on the journal article, that’s true. But it wasn’t true for ear malformations — which is what the headline and opening paragraphs would lead readers to expect. Parents of newborn infants want to do what’s best for their children, and having to make medical decisions for their infants is a stressful and emotional ordeal. Those decisions can be particularly tricky when the medical decision to be treated is not life threatening. Confusing news releases do not help people make informed decisions under any circumstances, but that is particularly true in circumstances as fraught as those facing parents of a newborn.