Doc, we need to talk | The Toronto Observer

6 reasons medical professionals avoid media

Taylor:

1 – Not many people in the media understand science.

2 – Sometimes journalists stretch the science.

3 – Everybody has a natural inclination to worry when they get a call from a reporter (“they are out to get me”).

Goldman:

4 – Some medical professors refer to the media as lower level of activity (as if they were always “digging for dirt”).

5 – Privacy legislation has put the fear of disclosure into the minds of medical professionals.

6 – In Ontario, each offence to a patient confidentiality can cost to hospitals thousands of dollars in fines.

In times of the Zika virus and other recent outbreaks, such as Ebola, you want to know how to protect yourself and your family — but you are often left uninformed because some medical professionals are reluctant to talk to the media.

Two media-savvy medical professionals talked to us about why the relationship between doctors and the media isn’t always the warmest.

The video interview features Maureen Taylor, former medical journalist and current physician assistant at Toronto East General Hospital, and Dr. Brian Goldman, emergency physician at Mount Sinai Hospital, as well as writer and broadcaster of White Coat, Black Art.