MedWatch (online magazine)

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MedWatch is an online magazine that critically deals with dubious promises of salvation, as well as with misleading reporting and advertising on medical topics.

magazine

Medwatch was in 2017 by the science journalist Nicola Kuhrt first and Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup as a blog founded with the aim to investigative -critical with pseudo-medical confront issues. The journalists received a start-up grant of 2000 € from the research network . All MedWatch contributions are free and freely accessible on the homepage. A scientific advisory board, including Jutta Hübner , Eckart von Hirschhausen , and Gerd Antes , supports the journalists with technical questions. In order to avoid conflicts of interest, the medium is financed through donations and crowdfunding . Donations over 1000 € will be published on the project homepage. In December 2019, the blog was expanded into an online magazine.

Research (selection)

  • In April 2018, the television magazine Kontraste reported in cooperation with MedWatch and the Stern on the case of a doctor who advertises the controversial MMS for curing various diseases.
  • In May 2018, MedWatch researched in the course of the so-called “Heidelberg Breast Cancer Scandal” that the controversial breast cancer test, contrary to previous claims, has a false-positive rate of close to 50%, which makes it practically “worthless”.
  • In August 2018, after research by MedWatch, a page was removed from the homepage of the Charité Children's Clinic , on which homeopathic remedies were described as effective against cancer . The case sparked an intense discussion.
  • In October 2019, the television magazine Panorama reported together with MedWatch on the inadequate regulation of the activities of alternative practitioners . A little later, the announcement for a legal opinion of the federal government was announced, in which the abolition of the profession should be examined.
  • In December 2019 to Medwatch put together with Zeit Online critically with a warning from the Federal Institute for Risikobewertu ng (BfR) in front of aluminum -containing deodorants apart. In July 2020, the BfR announced a related re-assessment of the risk.

Awards (selection)

  • In 2018 MedWatch received the # Netzwende Award . The jury justified this, among other things, with the fact that MedWatch "makes an important contribution to the defense of health education in times of growing information uncertainty in the population and escalating wars of interpretation"
  • In 2019, MedWatch received the Carl Sagan Prize for Journalists from the Society for the Scientific Study of Parascience .

Nominations (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Advice on the net - Dr. med internet. Deutschlandfunk, accessed on November 8, 2019 (German).
  2. ↑ NDR: "MedWatch" fights against fakes with facts. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  3. ↑ MedWatch - A blog exposes false "promises of salvation" on the internet. Bayerischer Rundfunk, February 10, 2019, accessed on November 8, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Transparency. In: MedWatch. Accessed November 8, 2019 (German).
  5. ↑ MedWatch as a magazine online - secure its existence. In: MedWatch - dedicated to research. December 19, 2019, accessed on December 21, 2019 (German).
  6. ↑ Dangerous miracle drug: MMS. In: Contrasts. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Esotericism - Believe in your gut! Deutschlandfunk, accessed on November 8, 2019 (German).
  8. ↑ "Bild", Kai Diekmann and the miracle cancer test - BILDblog. Accessed November 8, 2019 (German).
  9. ↑ RiffReporter: Heidelberger breast cancer scandal: It does not stop. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  10. ↑ No homeopathy advertising on the Charité website - who was behind it? Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Charité website contained praise for homeopathy against cancer. In: Tagesspiegel. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  12. ↑ NDR: Authority demands: Abolish alternative practitioners. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  13. ^ NDR: Federal government is considering the abolition of the naturopathic profession. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Veronika Völlinger: Ministry of Health: Federal Government explores tougher regulations for alternative practitioners . In: The time . November 4, 2019, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed November 9, 2019]).
  15. ↑ Peter Kurz: Debates alternative medicine: Globules as a substitute for antibiotics? Retrieved November 9, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup, Jakob Simmank : Aluminum salts: The aluminum deodorant hysteria . In: The time . December 12, 2019, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed December 21, 2019]).
  17. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Aluminum in deodorants is less harmful than expected. Retrieved July 21, 2020 .
  18. ↑ #netzwende. Accessed November 8, 2019 (German).
  19. ↑ GWUP - Die Skeptiker - Carl Sagan Prize 2019 for MedWatch. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Nominees - Grimme Online Award. Retrieved August 17, 2020 .