text_1: New Findings Show Xience Stents Are as Safe and Effective as Others
text_2: This story is an example of what’s often missing in medical research stories in a business section. The story is about a new cardiovascular stent that may be available if it receives approval from the Food and Drug Administration. But the story does not provide much insight about the actual utility of implanting stents. The story quoted an investigator on the project as saying that there was a lower heart-attack rate in those patients receiving this new stent. However – the published study indicated that while there were fewer heart attacks, this difference was not statistically significant. Beyond this, it is a comparison of heart attack rates in individuals who received stents and does include any indication of how this rate compares to that seen in people receiving optimal medical therapy but who don’t get a stent. The story fails to deliver any independent perspective – only letting us hear from a company spokesman and one study investigator. Not everyone who reads medical research stories in a business section is interested primarily as a shareholder. Some people want more context, more on the quality of the evidence, more on the size of the potential benefits and harms, and more on what this thing is likely to cost them. This story – which reported more on the competition among or revenues for device manufacturers – didn’t help those readers. And when you think of it, why wouldn’t shareholders want that missing information as well?