Media Rx: Access to Information and Medicine

With so much health news dominating the headlines from the Affordable Care Act to the launch of new drugs, The Paley Center for Media is gathering experts to explore the crucial role of media in providing the public with accurate and useful information. Our panel, representing varying perspectives, will examine how television, print, and the Internet have engaged the public in health issues that literally have life or death consequences. With the recent introduction of two breakthrough Hepatitis-C drugs, the panel will also consider issues surrounding reporting on pharmaceutical research and development and the high costs of life-saving medicine, as well as the need to make pharmaceutical research and expenditures transparent. While discussing the health of medical journalism, our panel will discuss how the public can be better informed in order to ask the essential medical questions to their healthcare providers and policy makers.