JMIR J Med Internet Res Journal of Medical Internet Research 1438-8871 Gunther Eysenbach Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, Toronto, Canada v7i4e44 16236696 10.2196/jmir.7.4.e44 Letter "Is Cybermedicine Killing You?" — University College London (UCL) Media Strategy Explained: Author's Reply Eysenbach Gunther MD, MPH
Centre for Global eHealth Innovation University of Toronto and University Health Network 190 Elizabeth Street Toronto, ON M5G 2C4 Canada +1 416 340 4800 ext 6427 +1 416 340 3595 geysenba@uhnres.utoronto.ca
Jul-Sep 2005 28 7 2005 7 4 e44 18 07 2005 18 07 2005 © Gunther Eysenbach. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 28.7.2005. Except where otherwise noted, articles published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, including full bibliographic details and the URL (see "please cite as" above), and this statement is included. 2005 Fourniol Dominique "Is Cybermedicine Killing You?" - University College London Media Strategy Explained J Med Internet Res 2005 7 2 e43 Eysenbach Gunther Kummervold Per Egil "Is Cybermedicine Killing You?" - The Story of a Cochrane Disaster J Med Internet Res 2005 7 2 e21 Author's Response

The UCL media strategy as described in the letter of Fourniol has been understood by us and has been accurately described in our editorial [1]. In fact, it is exactly this strategy which has been criticized as insufficient (some may say even unethical). It would have been more in the public's interest to immediately and unambiguously disseminate the fact that these major errors and misinformation occurred (and their magnitude), rather than waiting many months for the revision to be published. The strategy of the UCL media office is akin to a car manufacturer not recalling a faulty vehicle immediately after errors become apparent, but waiting first for a new model to be developed before starting a campaign to exchange the flawed model.

 Eysenbach Gunther Kummervold Per Egil "Is cybermedicine killing you?" - the story of a Cochrane disaster J Med Internet Res 2005 6 30 7 2 e21 http://www.jmir.org/2005/2/e21/ 15998612 v7i2e21 10.2196/jmir.7.2.e21