| The Association of Health Care Journalists offers resources to help journalists cover the wide range of health topics, including those surrounding the military, veterans and post-traumatic stress disorder. Members and other journalists write articles and tip sheets specifically for AHCJ about how they have reported a story, issues that our members are likely to cover and other important topics. We have compiled a selection of tip sheets, articles, Web sites and reports that we feel could be helpful as journalists cover the aftermath of the Fort Hood shootings. Some of these resources are normally available only to AHCJ members but we are opening them up to nonmembers for one week to help journalists cover this important topic. | | Check out AHCJ’s latest volume in its ongoing Slim Guide series. This reporting guide gives a head start to journalists who want to pursue stories about one of the most vulnerable populations – nursing home residents. It offers advice about Web sites, datasets, research and other resources. After reading this book, journalists can have more confidence in deciphering nursing home inspection reports, interviewing advocacy groups on all sides of an issue, locating key data, and more. The book includes story examples and ideas. AHCJ publishes these reporting guides, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to help journalists understand and accurately report on specific subjects. | | AHCJ has announced the selection of the second class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows. The 10 journalists will spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The fellowship program will include presentations, roundtable discussions and lab tours on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, obesity, vaccine safety, pandemic flu preparedness, autism and many other topics. | | The Association of Health Care Journalists sent letters this week to several federal agencies and a medical journal objecting to the uneven handling of embargoed news. The letters were addressed to officials at the National Institute of Mental Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics to protest the recent handling of embargoes on two autism studies. AHCJ is asking the agencies and academy to clarify embargo policies, saying that once an embargo is broken – once the news is out in any public forum, whether it's a radio report, a public meeting, a Web site or a newspaper - the embargo must be lifted. | 
Deadlines Early-bird (discounted): Dec. 18 Regular: Jan. 22, 2010 Be recognized for your best work. The Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism recognize the best health reporting in print, broadcast and online media. Entries can include a wide range of health coverage including public health, consumer health, medical research, the business of health care and health ethics. Last year's winners included a reporter's revelation of astonishing conflicts of interest by scientists advocating for early detection of lung cancer, the exploration of a hidden world of illegal prescription drugs sold at swap meets, a narrative on a mechanic seeking to rebuild his life after an accident severed his arms, and a trip into the nightmarish world of a boy struggling with mental illness. The contest was created by journalists for journalists and is not influenced or funded by commercial or special-interest groups. | | Health Journalism 2010 is scheduled for April 22-25 in Chicago. A great hotel contract has been signed with the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place offering a $139 room rate to our attendees. Local and national AHCJ committees are starting the planning process. Ideas for sessions or workshops are welcome; submit them online. More details will be shared in the weeks ahead, but set these days aside now for the best annual training event in health journalism. | 
Get tip sheets and speaker presentations.
Over the next 20 years, the 65-plus population is projected to grow four to six times as fast as the population as a whole. AHCJ's Aging in the 21st Century workshop in Miami featured experts to help reporters understand what they should be reporting on now. Special speakers included Donna Shalala, Ph.D., president of the University of Miami and former HHS secretary, who kicked off the workshop talking about what health reform could mean to senior health; and David Kessler, M.D., a professor in the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and former commissioner of the FDA, who discussed nutrition at the Saturday luncheon. | | Looking for a freelancer with expertise in a specific area of health? Are you a freelancer trying to get your expertise known? Take a look at our just-updated AHCJ Freelance Directory to choose from more than 60 highly experienced health journalists! Freelance members of AHCJ are invited to list their specialties, post résumés, bios, Web links – even story clips. The handy state-by-state directory allows hiring editors to zero in on geography or expertise to find the perfect candidate to approach for work. And it’s free for both AHCJ freelancers and hiring editors! | | 
The AHCJ board of directors elected a new set of officers to take their seats at the upcoming fall board meeting. Charles Ornstein of ProPublica was selected as president, Karl Stark of The Philadelphia Inquirer was named vice president, Ivan Oransky of Reuters Health was named treasurer and Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News was named secretary. Trudy Lieberman, board president for the past five years, assumes the new role of immediate past president. |  This special webinar for journalists looked at the key issues, how they've been covered in the media and what the press could do better. PowerPoint presentations from the panelists and a recording of the webinar are available. Moderator Mike Hoyt, editor of the Columbia Journalism Review, directed audience questions to panelists Kay Lazar of The Boston Globe, Karen Tumulty of Time, Robert Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review and Trudy Lieberman, contributing editor for CJR and AHCJ board president.
| | AHCJ has taken key elements from the federal Nursing Home Compare database and put them into a more manageable format in Excel spreadsheets. This allows members to quickly analyze the most recent Nursing Home Compare data for local stories about ratings or violations. For additional help for members, AHCJ created a tip sheet about summarizing spreadsheets to create categories and counts. AHCJ has made it easy to see when the data was last updated, what the star rating of a facility is, identifies serious violations and whether a violation was cited during a routine survey or after a complaint. Remember, AHCJ also offers ready-to-use Hospital Compare data to help you evaluate how your local hospitals stack up against their competitors, others in your state and hospitals across the country. | | AHCJ has many constantly updated resources to offer for journalists who may be covering flu, pandemics and public health preparedness. We have detailed tip sheets, speaker presentations about pandemics, animal-borne diseases, emergency preparedness and public health and much more. There is also a list of potential expert sources for everything from the science of flu to the ethics of quarantines, school closures and transportation limitations. The resource page also includes alerts and links to press briefings, hearings and news conferences on the issues. The CDC's Dr. Carolyn Bridges, associate director of epidemiologic science, Influenza Division, NCIRD, CDC, answered questions from AHCJ members during a live interview hosted by journalist and author Maryn McKenna. An archive of that interview is now available. | |  Although AHCJ has long been known for its supportive network of members, this year we are launching a more formal program to link members seeking some guidance with members who have recognized expertise in specific areas. This will be especially helpful to those new to the beat or those who have had health coverage added to an already long list of duties.
The number of members we are able to assist will depend upon the number of long-time health care journalists within our ranks willing to share some of their time as mentors. Sign up today!
| | Although AHCJ membership continued to increase over the past year as more journalists learned of its training opportunities and useful services, the group recognizes the strain under which the news media finds itself. The economic downturn has resulted in layoffs, buyouts and downsizings in several industries, including our own. AHCJ's board and staff believe it's important to retain all the talented professionals who make up our membership. With that in mind, AHCJ is announcing a Transition Assistance Program to help members who are forced into a job change. Any current AHCJ member who is laid off or is required to take a buyout is eligible for TAP. | | How do your local hospitals stack against their competitors, others in your state and hospitals across the country? When HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt unveiled a patient survey database at the AHCJ conference in March, members filed story after story about their local hospitals. Now, AHCJ has made it easier for journalists to compare hospitals in their regions by generating spreadsheet files from the HHS database, allowing members to compare more than a few hospitals at a time, using spreadsheet or database software. AHCJ provides key documentation and explanatory material to help you understand the data possibilities and limits. Need help in analyzing Excel files? AHCJ offers a tutorial about investigating health data using spreadsheets. | | Check out AHCJ’s latest volume in its ongoing Slim Guide series. The latest guide walks reporters through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site and highlights data resources. It is a starting place for finding national or state data and surveys when writing health stories. A Fast Stats section lists, by category, direct links to pages about specific diseases, conditions or datasets for reporters on deadline. For those who want to learn more, there are also step-by-step instructions with examples, story ideas and tips from successfully published stories that used CDC statistics. AHCJ publishes these reporting guides, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to help journalists understand and accurately report on specific subjects. | Free online training This free innovative simulation, "On the Beat: Covering Hospitals," guides you through the sources and resources you need to tackle the beat. You'll tap into the same tools that you'll use on the job, and you'll have a virtual mentor to walk you through the maze of reports, statistics and sources. Two story lines will teach you about reporting on hospital quality and how to report on hospital finances. Start today to hone your critical-thinking skills and gain the beat-specific knowledge needed to cover the hospitals in your community.
This online training module combines the reporting expertise of AHCJ with NewsU’s innovative e-learning experience and is made possible through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. AHCJ has launched an interactive e-class as the online companion to the book “Covering Health in a Multicultural Society: A Resource Guide for Journalists.” Enroll in the class to take part in discussion forums and take short quizzes to test your knowledge. Complete the e-class, and get a certificate of completion. The course is a resource for understanding the increasing diversity of the audiences AHCJ members serve. | |
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