Barry Meier of the New York Times writes Monday about how The Spine Journal won a business journalism award for writing about the effectiveness of a bone growth product sold by a medical company.
Meier writes, “The Spine Journal charged that academic experts paid by Medtronic to conduct earlier research about Infuse had issued biased and misleading results that overstated the product’s benefits and claimed that it did not pose risks.
“On Friday, the American Society of Business Publication Editors celebrated the journal’s effort by presenting it with its 2011 ‘Journalism That Matters’ award, an honor given in recognition of coverage that causes change by government or industry.
“It is highly unusual for one group of researchers to publicly repudiate the work of professional colleagues. And by throwing down its challenge, the special issue of The Spine Journal, which is the official journal of the North American Spine Society, was something of a turning point in the debate over conflicts of interest in research paid for by makers of medical products.”
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