At a September 16 briefing in Washington, D.C., The Kaiser Family Foundation released a study, "How Healthy Is Prime Time?: An Analysis of Health Content in Popular Prime Time Television Programs," co-sponsored by the Lear Center's Hollywood, Health & Society project. The report, available for download here, was written by USC Annenberg Associate Professor Sheila T. Murphy, PhD, Heather J. Hether, MA (ASC) and the Kaiser Family Foundations's Victoria Rideout, MA. It examines three seasons (2004-2006) of top-ten-rated primetime scripted shows to measure the prevalence and type of health content on entertainment shows The analysis reveals that an average of six out of ten episodes (59%) had at least one health storyline.

Director of HH&S Sandra de Castro Buffington was on a discussion panel after the briefing, as was Neal Baer, MD, co-chair of HH&S's Advisory Board and executive producer on Law & Order: SVU. Read the news release. For video and a transcript of the event, click here. Read the USA Today article about the study and other press coverage here.