{"entity":{"id":"idea-moon-hype-index","kind":"idea","name":"An independent hype index grading cancer press releases and news stories","aka":[],"tldr":"Rate every cancer breakthrough story and press release for spin, using set criteria, and publish the scores so journalists, institutions and readers can see who overstates.","summary":"Spin in abstracts and press releases is documented and propagates into news coverage and patient expectations; HealthNewsReview.org showed independent grading is feasible before it closed for lack of funding. The proposal is a sustainably funded service that grades press releases from journals, institutions and companies on a published rubric (absolute versus relative numbers, harms, cost, stage of evidence, independent comment), publishes an institution-level hype index, and provides a plain-language re-statement of each finding.","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"Bottleneck evidence (Misinformation and unproven therapies): Johnson et al., Cancer misinformation and harmful information on Facebook and other social media (JNCI 2022)","url":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djab141"}],"tags":[],"related":[],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":["b-misinformation","b-incentive-misalignment"],"keyPapers":["paper-johnson-j-natl-cancer-inst"],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"hypothesis":"Published hype scores reduce spin in subsequent press releases from graded institutions and reduce exaggerated claims in downstream news coverage.","rationale":"Reputational feedback changes institutional behaviour; the rubric exists and the grading cost is low.","test":"Grade all cancer press releases from the top 50 institutions for a year and publish; compare spin metrics in year two against ungraded institutions.","maturity":"early-clinical","actor":"research","cost":"small","horizonYears":1},"route":"/ideas/idea-moon-hype-index/","neighbours":{"bottleneck":[{"id":"b-incentive-misalignment","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Incentives reward me-too drugs and marginal gains","route":"/bottlenecks/b-incentive-misalignment/"},{"id":"b-misinformation","kind":"bottleneck","name":"Misinformation and unproven therapies","route":"/bottlenecks/b-misinformation/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-johnson-j-natl-cancer-inst","kind":"paper","name":"Cancer Misinformation and Harmful Information on Facebook and Other Social Media: A Brief Report","route":"/key-papers/paper-johnson-j-natl-cancer-inst/"}]}}