Prescription

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JUNE / / 2021 / / ISSUE 6

PRESCRIPTION THE MEDICAL MAGAZINE YOU JUST HAVE TO RENEW

We’ve made it to Half-Term! Hello and welcome to the sixth edition of Prescription! I hope everyone has enjoyed the first Half-Term of school and are looking forward to relaxing during the holidays :) Prescription aims to keep you up to date with everything in the world of medical sciences, featuring articles on new medical breakthroughs and interesting ethical questions written by our team of writers from Years 10-12. I hope you enjoy the articles as much as I have! Thank you to all of our journalists and the rest of the MedSoc team! Jasmin Ravindra (Editor)

How Does the Internet Affect the Portrayal of the Medicine Industry? NATASHA S 11N

much more shocking, mentally draining realisation from the patient upon finally consulting a doctor due to worsening symptoms, getting their true diagnosis from a professional. Additionally, when the information we read is unclear, we assume the worst. Readers can worry themselves to extreme fear when they believe they have a serious condition but in actual fact, they do not have any illness to worry about. The stress, whether it’s initial or delayed, can ultimately be significantly threatening to physical and mental health. This is why the impact of fake news being spread on large media giants can be so damaging in so many forms.

From newspapers with their separate health sections to medicinecentred dramas and documentaries, medicine is a major subject of interest to the popular media in many different ways. With the emergence and exposure of publications and blogs too, the medical world is more exposed than ever before.

The COVID-19 pandemic is no exception to the growth of misinformation. If anything, it has exacerbated the issue, as nearly two-thirds of Americans said they have seen news and information about the disease that seemed completely made up, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. This connects to the negative portrayal of medicine in the media as the tireless It is natural for one to believe that the portrayal of medicine in the work of doctors and public health officials around the world is made harder media should make the public and then future patients more informed. and harder, needing to express the right facts in a way that can be understood This is a goal for both the media and the medical industry. However, by everyone, and is twisted for the benefit of the media industry. spreading false, inaccurate or vague information that gives room for misinterpretation can put physicians and journalists into a conflict. To understand more about the general way that the industry is presented in There can be ethical difficulties brought up too, which could possibly the media, it is also necessary to consider the positive side. Technological put doubt into the minds of past patients and the public over the advances that allow for such wide-spread fast access to the Internet can doctors’ experience. Alongside this, the ease of uploading information provide the doctors and physicians with different online forums to promote for the world to see can often lead to breaches of patient-confidentiality debate, learning and celebration of achievement. There is also growing evidence of a more positive side to how hospitals, therapists and even health and privacy contracts. charities are coping with mental health issues amongst teens and adults. Forums used by medical professionals spark success in new forums like It is a common joke for adults to self-diagnose themselves, the people Childline and YoungMinds. around them and even their kids off the Internet, leading to the wellknown phrase ‘Dr Google’. Whilst this is a light-hearted comment on When these communities flourish in helping patients, bigger organisations the frequent event that this happens, self-diagnosis becomes extremely such as the government start to take better notice of the reasons and causes dangerous for anyone using the Internet to try help themselves. This behind all of this. An example of the government benefit can be seen in the can work both ways in that they may have an extremely serious UK as of May 2021, since £17 million has been provided to improve condition, but because the symptom they are having seems minute, mental health support in schools and colleges, alongside new funding to they dismiss it because of what they read online. This then generates a train thousands of senior mental health leads and educational staff.

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