How the heart team is portrayed in online news

Online news plays a critical role in public health literacy and the dissemination of medical information. As cardiovascular care increasingly relies on multidisciplinary collaboration, understanding how different specialties are represented in public portrayals of the heart team is essential; accordingly, this study examines patterns in online cardiovascular news coverage to assess how these roles are depicted.

A systematic Google News search was conducted using 7 keywords: "heart attack," "coronary artery disease," "heart failure," "aortic stenosis," "aortic regurgitation," "mitral stenosis," and "mitral regurgitation." Articles published between January 1, 2023, and January 1, 2024, were screened. Press type and physician specialty, gender, and role were analyzed.

Of the 1580 articles screened, 1131 met our inclusion criteria for analysis. Cardiologists accounted for more than one-half of all featured specialist appearances (640 of 1200; 53.3%), followed by interventional cardiologists (277 of 1200; 23.1%), other physicians (165 of 1200; 13.8%), and cardiothoracic surgeons (118 of 1200; 9.8%). Cardiothoracic surgeons were least represented in coverage of heart attack, coronary artery disease, and heart failure (2.4%, 3.0%, and 2.9%, respectively) but appeared more frequently in articles focused on valvular disease. Most physicians were academically affiliated and appeared mainly as interviewees. Female physicians were underrepresented overall.

Online cardiovascular news tends to feature cardiologists more often than cardiothoracic surgeons, emphasizing the importance of understanding how cardiovascular medicine is conveyed to the public.