The Case of the Abiocor Artificial Heart: High-Profile Research & the Media‪.‬

Media coverage of medical research has intermittently been a subject of considerable controversy. Clearly, the public should have access to information about emerging scientific developments, particularly those funded by taxpayers. The editors of major medical journals urge, however, that news about such developments be postponed until careful scientific review deems the information valid. (1) The press counter that these policies mainly protect special interests and that the public should be trusted to sort fact from the fiction. (2) While other commentators lament that the press is sometimes used for scientists' and industries' self-promotion, (3) virtually all parties agree that the relationship between scientific research and the media raises challenging issues. (4) Those issues are particularly poignant in research featuring a dramatic, potentially life-saving technology and a small number of enrolled patients (5) whose personal stories can be even more gripping than the science. Such was the case with the Jarvik-7 artificial heart in the early 1980s. When Barney Clark, a retired dentist, received the first Jarvik-7, a "media circus" enveloped the project and escorted a series of patients to their deaths. (6) But while no one endorses that press frenzy, it is still unclear whether those who conduct high-profile, intensely human-interest research have an obligation to keep the public apprised, and conversely, to what extent they should shield patients' privacy and perhaps also their own interests by downplaying public disclosures.