http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news.php Recent health stories from around the country en-us pia@healthjournalism.org hourly 3 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=612 In this new year, we have decided to merge our Hot Health Headlines feature with AHCJ's new blog, Covering Health. This change will allow our readers to have one place to get the latest news in health journalism and links to good work that has been done. We hope you'll visit the blog daily and subscribe to its RSS feed. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=609 Lee Hancock of The Dallas Morning News explores palliative care, which combines "traditional medicine with pain relief, spiritual counseling, and practical advice" for patients near the end of their lives and their families. Hancock and photographer Sonya N. Hebert spent almost a year at Baylor, documenting some of the most difficult and meaningful moments in the life of any nurse, doctor, patient or family member. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=610 James T. Mulder of The Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y., reports on CEO salaries and bonuses at nonprofit hospitals in the area, using IRS 990 forms. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=611 Abrahm Lustgarten of ProPublica and David Hasemyer of The San Diego Union-Tribune look at the potential environmental and water-use consequences of increased mining and drilling in the Colorado River's watershed. The river provides drinking water for more than 27 million people and nourishes 15 percent of the nation's crops. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=607 Mark Magnier of the Los Angeles Times reports from Mumbai about the stress on the small number of Indian pyschiatrists to provide adequate professional help for those impacted by the recent terrorist attacks. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=606 The Associated Press reports that Los Angeles County is hiring a watchdog to oversee its Department of Health Services in the wake of highly publicized patient deaths and mismanagement at a county-run hospital. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=608 Alison Young of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution used the Georgia Open Records Act to obtain the Atlanta Fire-Rescue Department's database of reports for 2007 and 2008. She found that medics with the department respond to about 4,000 emergency calls a year involving people at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=605 Mark Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes a three-part series detailing the discovery of how to create embryonic stem cells out of normal cells. One of the key labs in the research is located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=603 Sharon Salyer of the Everett (Wash.) Daily Herald and Alejandro Dominguez of the weekly Spanish-language newspaper La Raza del Noroeste, team up to produce a package of stories, available in both English and Spanish, about mental health in the Hispanic and immigrant community. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=604 Kris Hundley of the St. Petersburg Times writes about the latest outsourcing trend: clinical drug trials. Global drug companies are tapping India's population of nearly 1.2-billion to test the safety and effectiveness of compounds. The recent news that 49 children have died during clinical trials at All India Institute of Medical Sciences has "triggered unease about a drug-testing phenomenon, propelled by mountains of money that has swept India with little publicity." http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=598 Mike Dennison of Lee Enterprises writes a column that looks critically at a plan proposed by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who's among those leading the charge for health care reform in America. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=602 Patricia Meisol writes an article in The Washington Post Magazine about a medical student in Maryland who grapples with the possibility of becoming an abortion provider. Through the student, the article looks at how medical schools generally leave the specialty off the curriculum, leaving students to explore it on their own. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=601 Blake Morrison and Brad Heath of USA Today write about the results of their eight-month examination of the impact of industrial pollution on the air outside schools across the nation. The team found 435 schools that had air pollution 50 or more times higher than their state standards. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=600 Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle reports on a local state mental hospital that failed to follow its own standards, resulting in a preventable suicide. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=599 Susanne Rust and Meg Kissinger of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel write about new research that shows essentially all plastic materials contain levels of the toxic chemical Bisphenol A when microwaved. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=597 Dan Mascai writes in Business Week that Obama's health care proposals could produce a greater need for health care management professionals. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=594 An investigation by ProPublica's Abrahm Lustgarten finds that the levels of water pollution around natural gas drilling sites could be higher than what a 2004 EPA study found. Over the last few years, a series of contamination incidents have raised questions about that EPA study and ignited a debate over whether the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing may threaten the nation's increasingly precious drinking water supply. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=596 Rob Stein of The Washington Post writes about officials who say that the FDA needs special attention by the Obama administration. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=587 Time's Billy Powell reports on the regulatory problems in China that have brought drugs, baby formula and milk products tainted with dangerous substances into the U.S. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=588 Kelley Weiss of Capital Public Radio station KXJZ in Sacramento looks at how farmers and other small business owners who pay for health insurance as individuals are discriminated against by insurance companies. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=595 Sam Roe of the Chicago Tribune writes about how problems with the regulation of allergen labeling in food puts children in danger. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=585 Michael Learmoth and Rupal Parekh of Advertising Age write about a Twitter outburst that forced Johnson & Johnson to discontinue an ad campaign for Motrin that implied moms carry their babies as fashion accessories. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=583 Roberta Baskin of WJLA-Washington, D.C. takes a look into caffeine content of energy drinks and the lack of regulation despite petitioning by interest groups for a decade. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=593 Tom Avril of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the influence of corporate money on the study and promotion of nutrition. The article focuses on Lisa Hark, a nutritionist, author and former television host who has been quoted touting orange juice, chicken and dairy products while receiving money from those industries. However, as Avril points out,Hark is not the only "expert" accepting money from the food industry. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=591 Alison Young of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, following up her investigation that found schools allow unvaccinated children to attend, now reports that vaccination rules are also lax at day care centers. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=590 A study from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that news about health and health care made up 3.6 percent of all news content from January 2007 through June 2008. The smallest category of stories focused on health policy or the health care system (27 percent) of all health news, or less than one percent of all news content. This category includes stories on topics such as Medicare and Medicaid, the uninsured, health care costs, and proposals for reform of the health care system. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=589 Christina Jewett and Robin Fields of ProPublica investigate hospital chain Psychiatric Solutions Inc., finding that lapses have put patients at risk and that some have even died. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=584 Paige Parker of The Oregonian writes about the experience of a low-income family living in Portland that has to travel four hours once a month to do its grocery shopping. Some experts blame this on a "food desert," which comes from the lack of affordable grocery stores in low income neighborhoods. Some have linked this to the high levels of obesity in poor and minority populations. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=579 Mary Otto and a multimedia team at The Washington Post cover the work of the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps., a small army of medical professional who provide medical care to patients without health insurance or regular access to a doctor or dentist. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=586 A paper just published in BMJ discusses financial ties between medical journalists and the companies they cover. The authors look at three areas of "entanglement": education of journalists, awards for journalists, and the actual practice of journalism. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=578 Leah Beth Ward of the Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic writes that her series on high levels of nitrate in Washington wells has elicited response from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA has begun bringing together local, state and federal agencies in an effort to solve groundwater contamination in the Lower Yakima Valley. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=580 Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun writes that Nevada health authorities stripped Dr. Kevin Buckwalter of his license to prescribe controlled substances, alleging four cases of malpractice, including one patient death due to excessive prescribing of narcotics. Buckwalter was the subject of an investigation by the Sun in September. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=577 Rebecca Goldin, research director for the Statistical Assessment Service, recently spoke about journalists' failures to dissect statistics in news reports. Her talk illustrated how the media miss the mark in the use and presentation of statistics in stories about the economy, health, science, and education. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=581 Michael Berens and Ken Armstrong investigate methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in Washington hospitals, analyzing millions of records to track one of the nation's most widespread and preventable epidemics. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=582 A Boston Globe investigation uncovers the "best-kept secret" in Massachusetts medicine: Health insurance companies pay a handful of hospitals far more for the same work even when there is no evidence that the higher-priced care produces healthier patients. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=575 Deborah Crowe of the Los Angeles Business Journal writes a story detailing the financial and logistical woes of the Los Angeles hospital scene. According to the article, this past year, 14 hospitals with emergency rooms close, leaving fewer than 100 hospitals to serve nearly 10 million people spread across 4,000 square miles. That's far fewer hospitals than many other cities on a per capita basis. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=574 Helen Pidd of The Guardian writes about a chef who blames the obesity epidemic in Britain on lack of knowledge about food and cooking. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=564 ProPublica's Joaquin Sapien writes a follow up to the investigation into the CDC response to formaldehyde findings in FEMA trailers. This is installment looks at the lack of progress made by the CDC in conducting a study of the health of children who lived in the trailers. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=576 The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal report on Google Flu Trends, a Web site that maps flu outbreaks based on people's searches for terms related to the flu. The site was built in collaboration with Google.org's Predict and Prevent Initiative, led by Mark Smolinski, a doctor whose interest in outbreaks was sparked by the 1993 hantavirus outbreak in Arizona. A speech by one of Google.org's epidemiologists at the March 2008 International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases, outlines the initiative and offers some insight into the future of using technology to track and predict outbreaks. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=570 Victoria Colliver of the San Francisco Chronicle writes that the Bay Area's three largest hospital chains have signed on as donor partners with nonprofit MedShare International, which sends surplus medical materials overseas to hospital and medical clinics. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=571 Marylyn Donahue of PharmExec.com writes about the television show "House" and recent questions raised about possible paid product placements for drugs. A recent episode featured the use of the drug Lupron to treat hypogonadism, which is not an FDA-approved use for it, just as a newer pulse-dose Lupron is currently being evaluated as a treatment for hypogonadism in a FDA-registered clinical trial. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=573 WGCL-Atlanta examined FDA records of mammogram facility inspections and found that dozens are operating after being cited for serious violations. The violations range from everything from failing to prove doctors are board certified, state licensed, or even qualified to read mammograms, to equipment failing crucial quality control tests. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=572 In a story that could be done nearly everywhere, The New York Times' Reed Abelson reports that hospitals are "seeing fewer paying patients even as greater numbers of people are showing up at emergency rooms unable to pay their bills." http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=569 Alicia Mundy posts on The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog about possible leaders for the two agencies in the Barack Obama administration, while Jame Sarasohn-Kahn at the Health Care Blog has some thoughts on filling health cabinet and key office posts. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=568 Lois M. Collins and Elaine Jarvick of The Deseret News (Utah) wrote a series of articles about aging. The three days of stories touch on topics like how to take care of aging parents, how people should cope mentally and physically for aging, and society's view on the issue. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=565 Gardiner Harris writes in The New York Times Magazine about the discrepancy between FDA regulations and inspections for drug manufacturers in foreign countries. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=563 In continuing coverage of problems with Maryland's medevac system, Robert Little of The (Baltimore) Sun reviewed crash records and other documents on the 26 fatal medevac crashes in the United States since 2003. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=567 Tom Wyrwich of The Seattle Times writes about high school football players who sustain repeated concussions and suffer from a rare condition - almost unheard of in adults - called second-impact syndrome. Some players attempt to hide the symptoms of a concussion to keep playing. In addition, a shortage of certified athletic trainers leaves coaches to make medical decisions about whether players should return to the game. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=560 In the Op-Ed section of the New York Times, Billy Beane, Newt Gingrich and John Kerry use an analogy to baseball to describe what needs to be done to improve the U.S. health care system. They say that by using statistical measures to measure the effectiveness of players and plays instead of simply spending the most money, teams like the Tampa Bay Rays have been able to succeed while spending a lot less money. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=561 Phil Galewitz of The Palm Beach Post put together a multimedia package that explores the booming heart care industry. Stories look at medical devices, heart disease tests and the low detection of heart disease in women. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=562 Alison Young of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution found that at least 99 schools' kindergartners and 81 schools' sixth-graders in metro Atlanta failed to meet state vaccination standards. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=558 The New York Times' Kevin Sack writes about the fears some small business owners have about presidential candidate Barack Obama'a health care plan. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=559 Patricia Wen of The Boston Globe writes about Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a hospital that prides itself on transparency but has suffered some public-relations blows after reporting a number of errors in recent months. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=555 The news about NFL player Kellen Winslow and his battle with a staph infection might prompt reporters to investigate infection control measures in use by local teams, whether high school, college or pro. Learn much more about drug-resistant infections with AHCJ's comprehensive primer on methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=549 The Chicago Tribune's Becky Yerak and Bruce Japsen write that Chicago's Lincoln Park Hospital is for sale, partly because the difficulties of getting financing are making it difficult to run the facility. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=556 Lisa Girion and Michael A. Hiltzick of the Los Angeles Times write a three-part series about the health insurance industry. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=548 Angelo Bruscas writes about how social influences impact health on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Big Blog. According to David Williams, a professor of public health at Harvard University, a strong disparity exists in a person's health in relation to that individual's race and other socioeconomic factors, in particular, the link between health and where someone lives. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=554 Jim Edwards writes in Brandweek about why pharmaceutical companies have avoided online social media, such as bulletin boards, chat rooms and blogs, and the pressure to change. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=546 Jonathan Cohn, a senior editor at The New Republic, writes about whether Sen. Barack Obama would, or should, pare back the major federal spending he's promising for things like health care, education and energy if he's elected president. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=553 An investigation by Leah Beth Ward of the Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic looks into a little-noticed study that found that one in five wells in the Lower Yakima Valley contained nitrates above federal standards. The multiple-part series looks into how this affects peoples lives, why so little has been done and how other areas have tackled the problem. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=547 Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, writes an article on MSNBC.com about the rise of genetic testing kits sold directly to consumers which claim to allow women "to assess their personal risk for the common forms of breast cancer." http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=550 Angie Drobnic Holan of PolitiFact and the St. Petersburg Times writes about health care as the last of a four-part series on key issues in the presidential election. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=545 Jonathan Cohn writes a story for Self that looks at why people, healthy or unhealthy, are sometimes denied for health insurance coverage. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=544 AHCJ PresidentTrudy Lieberman, writing for CJR.org, outlines 12 questions about health care that should be posed during the presidential candidate's debate. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=543 Joaquin Sapien of ProPublica writes an article that explores why the CDC was slow to respond to the formaldehyde problem in FEMA trailers in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. ProPublica examined hundreds of pages of e-mails and other documents and interviewed former and current CDC scientists and officials. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=542 Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber report that dozens of nurses convicted of crimes, including sex offenses and attempted murder, have remained fully licensed to practice in California for years before the state nursing board acted against them. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=538 In a Wall Street Journal article, Vanessa Fuhrmans writes that spending on health care - including doctors' appointments, preventive tests and prescription drugs - is declining. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=541 Julie Rovner writes about health care reform in CongressDaily and whether it is really out of the question after the economic crisis. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=540 Recent articles in a variety of publications have discussed the implications the U.S. financial crisis is having on hospitals, including postponing bond sales intended to fund capital improvement projects. Also included are some tip sheets to help reporters investigate the financial health of hospitals in their areas. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=539 Michael Vitez of The Philadelphia Inquirer reports in an occasional series on the uninsured and the underinsured. Each story uses one person's case to exemplify one aspect of the problem and includes expert commentary on each case. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=536 A story by Bloomberg's Aliza Marcus looks into how Peabody Energy Corp., the world's largest coal producer, is offering health benefits to coal workers in Wyoming that involve seeking out the nation's best care and giving workers incentives to use it. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=537 Several organizations have covered the new study released in JAMA that finds that news articles reporting on medication studies often fail to report pharmaceutical company funding and frequently refer to medications by their brand names despite newspaper editors' contention that this is not the case. Read more about the study and see what AHCJ's Statement of Principles says about the standards journalists should meet when covering health and medicine. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=534 Alan Schwartz of The New York Times writes about retired NFL players and other athletes who are planning to give their brains to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University's School of Medicine for the research of the long-term effects of concussions. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=535 In an article for the AARP Bulletin, Susan Jaffe writes about the disparities in Medicare payments from county to county in the United States. The article is accompanied by an interactive map that shows Medicare payments to insurance plans in every county that may provide a local angle for reporters who want to do their own stories. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=533 The New Yorker's William Finnegan writes about the struggle a marine with post-traumatic stress disorder faced upon returning home. Woven through the tale are facts about PTSD and how it is affecting more veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan than previous wars and what is being done to address it. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=529 Glamour interviewed presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama on a variety of issues, including health care. McCain talked about his plan to provide a tax credit to individuals and families and how it would affect young women. Obama discussed his plan to lower premiums and covering the uninsured with a subsidized policy similar to the one members of Congress have. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=530 In an article for Self, Maryn McKenna writes about a group of people with similar medical symptoms who are working to have their condition recognized as a disease. The syndrome is being referred to as Morgellons and the symptoms include swollen lymph nodes, fever, mental haziness and lesions that sprout a stiff fiber. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=532 Emily Ramshaw of The Dallas Morning News writes that Hurricane Ike is raising new questions about the prudence of housing deadly pathogens in Galveston's massive new national biodefense lab. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=525 Brad Schrade of the (Nashville) Tennessean writes about a little-known benefit of being a Nashville Metro Council member: lifetime health insurance that is partially subsidized by taxpayers. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=526 David Andreatta of the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat & Chronicle writes that nearly two-thirds of schools in New York state are not receiving the twice-yearly health inspections required by federal law to curb food poisoning, making the state among the nation's worst offenders. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=527 Kent Garber writes an article in U.S. News & World Report about how third-party "food-safety consultants" are increasingly taking over the job of making sure food manufacturers meet federal guidelines as the job grows larger and the FDA remains underfunded and understaffed. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=523 Chad Skelton of the Vancouver Sun writes that before a recently changed law, the College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia was not required to release details of a nurse's misconduct. The paper found that 45 nurses signed "consent agreements" with the college, voluntarily agreeing to a suspension of their right to practice nursing without going through a formal disciplinary hearing. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=524 Kimberly S. Johnson of The Denver Post writes about two Denver-based entrepreneurs who are developing a product they hope will help fight the war on bacteria: a silicon film that mimics the shape and pattern of shark scales. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=531 Kathryn Foxhall of Government Health IT writes that the National Minority Quality Forum has created the "ZIP Code Analysis Project" to collect data on disease activity among both general and minority populations by postal code. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=518 In an article in The New York Times Magazine, Jennifer Egan explores the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children, how prevalent it is and what characterizes it as compared to the disorder in adults. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=517 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Bill Hendrick writes about a growing number of doctors who are opting to run concierge practices, in which they charge patients anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $20,000 a year to stay in their practice. In return, physicians are accessible 24/7 by cell phone and e-mail, provide head-to-toe annual exams and build in time to allow for same-day visits. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=520 Laura Ungar and Patrick Howington are the writers of a special report from the Louisville Courier-Journal about the health insurance crisis and the growing number of people who are uninsured and underinsured. The project looks at three groups of people who are affected by the crisis: families, young adults and senior citizens. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=515 An article in Medical News Today announces a new Canadian database that allows people to search for information on natural health care products. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=516 Jennifer L. Boen of the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel conducted an investigation on health issues in tattoo businesses, looking at five years of county health inspection reports. The story gives readers tips on what to look for in a reputable tattoo business and common problems cited in the inspection reports. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=521 The Las Vegas Sun's Marshall Allen writes about a doctor who prescribed 1,530 doses of alprazolam; 11,350 oxycodone; 5,740 hydrocodone pills; and 1,440 doses of hydromorphone to a single patient over the course of two and a half years. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=522 Contingencies, a publication of the American Academy of Actuaries, has published articles about health care reform by Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama, as well as one by an actuary who weighs the candidates' proposals. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=519 Benjamin Brewer, M.D., a family physician who writes a column for wsj.com, this week writes about "defensive medicine." He describes the practice as "doing more tests, ordering more consults from specialists and exposing patients to the risks of radiation, invasive tests and treatments" to protect the practice from being sued. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=512 In a three-part series, Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter Janet Moore looks at payments made by medical device companies to doctors who consult for them. Congress and the Justice Department are looking into the practice and a bill is pending that would require companies to disclose payments by both drug and device companies. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=513 Associated Press reporter Dave Kolpack writes about a new way to administer drugs to people living in small towns that don't have a pharmacist: telepharmacies. The stores, manned by pharmacy technicians who are connected to a pharmacist via the Internet, allow customers to connect with real people who can answer questions about their drugs. Many customers in small towns receive drugs through the mail. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=509 Yamil Barnard's article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram discusses why Congress is requiring the Joint Commission to re-apply for authority to certify that hospitals meet federal standards. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=513 Associated Press reporter Dave Kolpack writes about a new way to administer drugs to people living in small towns that don't have a pharmacist: telepharmacies. The stores, manned by pharmacy technicians who are connected to a pharmacist via the Internet, allow customers to connect with real people who can answer questions about their drugs. Many customers in small towns receive drugs through the mail. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=512 In a three-part series, Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter Janet Moore looks at payments made by medical device companies to doctors who consult for them. Congress and the Justice Department are looking into the practice and a bill is pending that would require companies to disclose payments by both drug and device companies. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=514 Dean Starkman reports for Columbia Journalism Review that the Roanoke Times has reassigned reporter Jeff Sturgeon, who had been covering a local hospital. An earlier Wall Street Journal article had reported that Carilion Health System pulled its ads from the Roanoke Times "after repeatedly complaining about a reporter who had been aggressively covering the hospital." http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=511 Los Angeles Times' Rosie Mestel writes in the health blog Booster Shots about criticism of the recent telethon, including the participation of journalists and unproven statements that aired on the show. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=510 An article in Rehabilitation Nursing provides an overview of key sources of evidence and how to effectively search for and review research. The article discusses what is available from PubMed, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature and the Web of Science. It uses a case study to illustrate methods of searching. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=508 Kenneth Heard of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette writes that the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences will use a private company to search for its new chancellor and to help them keep the search private. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=506 The Wall Street Journal's Laura Landro writes that two of the leading hospital purchasing groups are mounting new campaigns to reduce the use of antibiotics. A growing number of bacteria that have developed resistance to common drugs. Some two million people acquire bacterial infections in U.S. hospitals each year, and 90,000 of those patients die as a result. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=507 Jessica Meyers of The Dallas Morning News writes about the lack of safety regulation and injury monitoring in cheerleading, which is not considered a sport in Texas or most other states. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news.php Read the complete archive of Hot Headlines