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Article Analysis Part 1: Trade Magazine

When setting out to compare and contrast radiation oncology articles the first

content I came across was a trade magazine website. The trade magazine I examined

was ​Radiology Today Magazine. ​The piece that caught my attention was “Small

Exercise Tips For Radiologist May Yield Large Gains” ​witten by Carrie Schmitz. At first

glance it was obvious this magazine had either paid sponsors or profited from paid

advertisement. This was clear because the web page was riddled with flashy

advertisements. Just below the advertisements was the title of the article and below that

was an illustration of a worker seated followed by images of the worker than standing

up. This image was a segway into the purpose of the writing which was to explain the

importance of breaking up long periods of sitting while working.

The article discusses how workers in the radiation oncology field, such as

therapist and dosimetrist, are at risk for health issues. Schmitz states that people

working these jobs are at a high risk for ​diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.​1

The reason radiation oncology employees are at a high risk for these health problems is

from the prolonged time sitting and looking at computer screens.​1​ She then goes on to

say that even an hour of moderate exercise can not reverse the effects of sitting for over

six hours.​1​ Following these statements Schmitz then offers ways to reduce prolonged

sedentary time. The first method she offers is to set a timer for every 30 minutes and

when the timer goes off to get up, stretch, and move the body. The next proposition is

one she calls the sit-stand interventions. The idea is to alternate between working while

sitting and working while standing. She states that doing has shown to improve
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productivity, blood pressure regulation, mood, and reduce back stress.​1​ She then says

that a recent study detailed that employees were 78% more likely to experience

reduced back pain if they used the sit-stand intervention at work.​1​ Following this

information the author articulates that a tactic to increase employee health is to stand

when answering phone calls or when talking to another employee. She says these

simple tasks can add up in a huge way, stating that a research study showed that

standing for 3 hours each day burns as many calories as running 10 marathons.​1​ The

article concludes with its last tactic to get radiation oncology employees to sit less is to

incorporate a standing workstation. Concluding with the statement that utilizing some of

these ideas can help any employee who spends most of their day on the computer

screen.

This article was very intriguing to me and that is why I chose to examine it as part

of the compare contrast assignment. It was interesting to me because as an aspiring

dosimetrist at times it can become difficult to sit all day and stay concentrated on a

computer screen. The methods described in this article I found very practical, and are

ideas I am going to try to incorporate into my days. I believe it would be important for all

practicing dosimetrist to read this article, or an article like it. Articles like this are

important to read not only for the health benefits, but also to increase productivity and

concentration.

One of the issues with this article is the lack of verified sources. The author

makes claims from health risks to calorie expenditure. She even claims that her data is

from scientific studies. However, not a single remark is cited and the end of the article
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has no references to further examine the validity of the statements. When arguments

like 78% experienced less back pain, and standing three hours a day equates to ten

marathons are made there has to be evidence of where those numbers came from.

Simply stating “a recent study showed” is not sufficient. This lack of evidence makes me

question the legitimacy of these statistics. I believe that the author is using unreliable

information in order to spark a more intense emotion in the reader. On the surface this

seems deceiving, but it is also one of the strengths of this article.

The purpose of this article is to get dosimetrist to be more active on the job site,

and this article does a great job of making a compelling argument. The author has a call

to action supported by powerful statements, and then offers ways to achieve that action.

Overall the strength of this article was its persuasion. The weakness of this article is the

legitimacy of it. The studies referenced were not cited and many claims went

unsupported by facts. Using unverified data could be a serious issue if the article was

about something more serious than getting on your feet more often at work.
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1. Schmitz C. SMALL EXERCISE TIPS FOR RADIOLOGISTS MAY YIELD LARGE

GAINS. Web Exclusive.
https://www.radiologytoday.net/archive/WebEx0317.shtml. Accessed February 7,
2019
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Article Analysis Part 2: Professional Journal

The journal I read to find an article was the Medical Dosimetry AAMD journal. The

article I decided to read was ​Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer in the Era of Multigene

Panels: Can We Make an Impact on Population Health? w

​ ritten by Paul Brennan and

Ophira Ginsburg. The article looks at the potential of using genetic testing to isolate high

risk women for breast cancer. The majority of this study took place within Nigeria where

breast cancer has a high prevalence.

In Nigeria women experience a high rate of breast cancer. Within Nigeria breast

cancer accounts for 40% of the cancers, and approximately one third of deaths.​2 ​This

accounted for 13,00 deaths in 2012.​2 ​The hypothesis of this article was that genetic test

could identify high risk patients, and then a more proactive screening could occur to

help reduce the amount of fatal incidences of breast cancer. The study took 1,136

women who had breast cancer and then there was a control group of 997 unaffected

women.​2​ These groups of women underwent extensive genetic testing to try and identify

gene sequences that are related to high risk of breast cancer. The genetic testing

resulted in 15% of the women having a high risk gene code, along with 12 other gene

variants were discovered.​2

The overall results of this study came out somewhat inconclusive. Since the

health care system lacks funding in their country a genetic test like this would allow

them to be proactive in finding high risk cancer patients, which would reduce mortality

due to breast cancer. The author suggest that with the lack of availability of screening
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mammography for women in the general population this might prove a better use of

limited resources, while making a substantial effect on breast cancer mortality.​2 ​ This

due to the high risk patients would be made aware and could receive proper pre-cancer

screenings not available to the entire population. However, this statement comes with a

caveat. The author says that for population-based screening to be possible, about 32

million women at risk would need to be tested to find the approximately 220,000 women

with a pathogenic variant high-risk gene (assuming a prevalence of 0.7%). This is a far

greater genetic screen than has ever occured before, and for a country with already

limited healthcare resources it is unlikely.

My impression of this article was that it was professionally written with the

purpose to help people. The overall writing of the article was well put together stating all

the necessary information. They also referred to recently published articles in their

sources and gave detailed statistics about the problem at hand. The overall theme of

the piece was to find a way to help the people of Nigeria in a way that is affordable and

doable. Genetics is a field that is advancing rapidly and it was a good idea to explore

genetic testing to attempt to help the people of Nigeria.

When comparing this article to the trade magazine article there were some clear

differences. One of the biggest differences was the clearity in which data was

presented. Any data used within the scholarly article was cited clearly, as opposed to

the trade magazine that had no sources. The scholarly article also listed links to the

authors disclosures to determine if they had any prejudices in writing the article. The

two article also had visual differences in the writings. The scholarly article used
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formatted tables to illustrate points made. On the contrary the trade magazine used

unprofessional illustrations to show their points. The last major differences was the

trade magazine was riddled with advertisements while to scholarly article had no

advertisements at all. Overall the reliability of a scholarly article is far greater than an

article in a trade magazine.

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2. Ginsburg O, Brennan P. Genetic Testing for Breast Cancer in the Era of Multigene

Panels: Can We Make an Impact on Population Health? Journal of Clinical Oncology.

2018;36(28):2817-2819. doi:10.1200/jco.2018.79.3307.