Membership: Benefits
Why join AHCJ?
• The AHCJ website has a wealth of useful information that is updated regularly. Members have exclusive access to job postings, great resources, back issues of HealthBeat and a special section for freelancers. We want to be a regular stop and the first place you turn when you start a story.
• Updated five days a week, the Covering Health blog is your link to the latest news in the field, story ideas, hot headlines, new reports and tools to use in your reporting, noteworthy stories and more.
• The newsletter, HealthBeat, is published twice a year.
• The electronic discussion list is a private service for AHCJ members where they can hold ongoing discussions, seek help with a story and request information. The AHCJ's board members take turns administering the list. If you're a member, you're automatically added to the list, but you can opt out. The list is archived online, giving members access to many years' worth of shared resources and wisdom.
• Free access to data and mapping applications from Esri. Members can sign up for a basic subscription to Esri's Business Analyst Online (BAO), a web-based demographic data exploration application. Journalists can use BAO to investigate demographic patterns and compare areas through interactive maps. Such a subscription is normally $995. Esri also will provide custom data, maps, and charts to AHCJ members if BAO doesn't have what they're looking for.
• An annual professional conference and smaller regional workshops, with an educational program by our Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, to advance your skills, hear insightful speakers, and meet others who face the same challenges you do. Hundreds of people gather each year for AHCJ's annual conferences, featuring experts and newsmakers in health care as well as experienced journalists who share tips and offer resources to help our members. In recent years attendees have heard from HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, CDC Directory Thomas Frieden, patient safety expert Peter Pronovost, health care economics expert Uwe E. Reinhardt, Elizabeth Edwards, actor Dennis Quaid, Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and many more. More than 625 attended Health Journalism 2011 in Philadelphia.
• Fellowships for training opportunities help our members get the training and support they need to do their jobs well.
- The AHCJ Regional Health Journalism Fellowship includes a number of training events throughout the year for selected journalists from a specific region of the country. The fellows are assigned a mentor from AHCJ's membership, attend the organization's workshops and conferences and visit the CDC for customized briefings.
- The AHCJ Media Fellowships on Health Performance give reporters the training and resources to examine the quality of health-care systems.
- AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows spend a week studying public health issues at two CDC campuses in Atlanta.
- Other fellowships allow journalists from Oregon, California, New York and Missouri attend AHCJ's annual conference, as well as members of the ethnic media and journalists on nonhealth beats.
• The AHCJ staff is always happy to lend assistance to our members. The office staff's regular working hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. central time, Monday through Friday. Feel free to e-mail or call with questions or comments. Our telephone number is 573-884-5606.
• An online directory of AHCJ members who do freelance work for hiring managers to use to find expert health journalists.
• Free access to journals and databases, including:
- UpToDate.com is an online, searchable clinical textbook with articles written by more than 4,400 expert clinicians that summarize available evidence and are regularly updated to incorporate new findings or recommendations. Normally, subscriptions run up to $495 a year. Read more about UpToDate.
- The Cochrane Library, a clinical research database (a $235 value!). Read more about what the Cochrane Library offers.
- Annual Reviews, which publishes reviews in 40 disciplines within the biomedical, physical and social sciences. This would cost thousands of dollars if you signed up on your own. Read more about what Annual Reviews offers.
- Health Affairs, the respected health policy journal (a $125 value!). Read more about what Health Affairs offers.
- American Journal of Public Health, dedicated to original work in research, research methods, and program evaluation in the field of public health. (a $200 value!). Read more about what the American Journal of Public Health offers.
- Journal of the American Medical Association and its nine specialty journals. Read more about what JAMA/Archives offers.
• Regional chapter groups, which organize social gatherings and meetings with sources.
• Events that will generate immediate stories and sources.
• Online resources – tip sheets, "How we did it" articles, audio of special panels, presentations from health experts and more – to help you do your job better.
• 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.
• A mentoring program to link members seeking some guidance with members who have recognized expertise in specific areas.
• Online information about job openings, fellowships, contests and freelance opportunities.
• A calendar of upcoming news events.
• An electronic discussion group, offered either as regular e-mails or a once-a-day digest e-mail.
• Social networking on LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as an active presence on Twitter.
• A newsletter, published three times a year, that provides timely and helpful articles about meeting the challenges of covering this complex beat.
• A committee for freelance affairs and one for right-to-know concerns.
• An online bookstore for members' books, AHCJ publications and other books.
• AHCJ depends on its member volunteers to produce its newsletter and to run a strong organization. If you're interested in joining a committee, producing something for the newsletter or website or serving on the board, please contact the AHCJ office.
Above all, AHCJ advocates for journalists. We work with institutions and sources to promote the free flow of information. We encourage the journalism industry to broaden training opportunities on this beat. Together, we can achieve what no individual could alone.