15 episodes
Dissected: Cutting to the Heart of Health News Heather Johnson
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- Health & Fitness
There’s an enormous amount of health information at our fingertips. But how do you know what to believe and what to disregard? In this podcast, I’ll help to answer that question. Every week, I’ll either sit down with a healthcare expert to discuss an article or talk to you one on one about how to interpret news stories and the journal articles from which those stories stemmed. When I sit down with the experts, we’ll break down a news article, then dive into the source. We’ll talk about the strengths and limitations of the study and provide guidance about how you may proceed with the information. We’ll touch a variety of topics from healthy aging to breakthrough treatments for chronic diseases and everything in between. Every week, you’ll learn something new and walk away as a savvier consumer of health information.
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What are the odds?: A concise introduction to one of the most common statistics in medical research
In this episode, I provide a concise introduction to odds ratios, one of the most common statistics used in medical research. I discuss what they are, how to interpret them, and how to describe them in terms of their confidence intervals.
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Should you trust that book? It depends...
Just because something is written in a book, that doesn't mean the information is reliable. In this episode, I provide a real-world example of a book that sought to push an agenda, and was written and endorsed by individuals completely outside the field in which the book was about.
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Q&A: What does it mean when an article is retracted?
Articles can be retracted for a number of reasons. In this episode, I explain what those reasons and and discuss the implications of publication retraction.
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Q&A: What is a randomized controlled trial? (Part III)
On this episode, the final in the three-part series centered on the basics of randomized controlled trials, I discuss the main four methods of randomization.
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Q&A: Where can I find free articles?
In this episode, I answer a listener question about where to find free journal articles.
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Q&A: What is a randomized controlled trial? (Part II)
In this episode, I describe characteristics of randomized controlled trials, including how they can be carried out, and explain what it means for RCTs to be single-blind, double-blind, and triple-blind.