On Tuesday, February 26, a unique event called American Voices – Aligned for Health was held at the Center for Total Health in Washington, D.C. At the event, Kaiser Permanente released the results of a new data analysis focused on how physicians, health reporters and policymakers talk about health.
The analysis of more than 2 million tweets by 3,200 doctors, every member of Congress who tweets, and more than 150 health journalists found significant differences among the three groups studied, underscoring a need for greater alignment among key influencers around pertinent health issues impacting Americans. Key findings include the following:
- Physicians talked a tremendous amount about non-pharmaceutical treatment interventions, such as lifestyle medicine and therapies, whereas the media focused significantly more on new drug approvals and milestones
- Physicians engaged in significantly more conversations around “high-risk/low-effort prevention behaviors” (common, everyday occurrences that may pose safety issues to patients) – 67 percent more than media and 483 percent more than Congress
- Media discussed diabetes, heart disease and influenza — common ailments affecting millions of Americans every year — 19 percent more than physicians and 1,100 percent more than Congress did
- Congress and the media focused on policy related issues — like insurance and reimbursement — at least 70 percent more than physicians did
After the findings were announced, a panel discussion took place to discuss the implications of the data: Kaiser Permanente’s associate physician-in-chief, Rahul Parikh, MD represented the physician voice; Politico’s Health Care Editor Joanne Kenen represented the policy voice; MomsRising.org’s campaign director Monifa Bandele represented the patient voice, and Bloomberg’s health care reporter Alex Wayne represented the reporter voice.
For viewer insights, check out event tweets via Storify. And to view the event in its entirety, check out the recording of its webcast.
