Resources: AHCJ Articles
To search for resources in this area on a specific topic, please use the search function in the gray bar above.
| Title | Date Posted | Author |
Reporter finds efforts to monitor groundwater contamination leave much to be desired
|
Atlanta reporter checks up on school vaccination compliance
|
Number of factors affect people's access to health care Two doctors and a health business reporter discussed the roadblocks that prevent people from receiving health care during a panel at the Urban Health Journalism Workshop. Reed Abelson, of The New York Times, offers some thoughts about how to cover the "uninsured." |
Shattering myths about emergency rooms: ‘Urgent emergents' and ‘frequent fliers' Despite the common belief that emergency rooms are inundated by uninsured patients, two emergency specialists told a panel at the Urban Health Journalism Workshop that's not necessarily the care. They did outline some of the problems ERs face and some recommendations about how to solve the problems. |
Urban Health Journalism Workshop: The built environment's impact on public health The "built environment" encompasses all buildings, spaces, and products that are created or modified by people, including homes, schools, workplaces, parks/recreation areas, greenways, business areas, and transportation systems. It extends overhead, underground and across the country. It includes land-use planning and policies that impact our communities in urban, rural, and suburban areas. And every bit of it has an effect on our health. A panel at the Urban Health Journalism Workshop explored ways in which people's health is impacted by that environment. |
Urban Health Journalism Workshop: Monitoring jail and prison health Reporters and an advocate from the Legal Aid Society discussed health care in prisons and jails at the Urban Health Journalism Workshop, including why adequate health care in jails and prisons ultimately effects society at large. |
Visit to the Bronx provides insight into school-based health programs
|
Urban Health Journalism Workshop: Asthma and children Asthma has everything to do with where someone lives. So, for this year's Urban Health Journalism Workshop concerning environmental issues and health, one panel honed in on children and asthma. Experts stressed the role that education about symptoms and management play in the wellness of children with asthma. |
Health writer reflects on shaky times in newsroom
|
President’s corner: Putting a human face on McCain, Obama health plans
|
Journalists face 'health literacy' hurdles in reaching audience Study notes lack of specialized training |
Author Q&A: Julie Salamon on long-term reporting and urban hospitals Posted: 08/20/08 by: Thomas Cullen
|
Deciphering cost reports helps paint picture of hospital's financial health Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporters Darren Barbee, Yamil Berard and Anthony Spangler spent four months examining the JPS Health Network through public records and data, including financial and tax documents, reports to state and federal agencies, and correspondence. Berard obtained cost reports for the hospital – and eight others – and analyzed them to determine whether there was evidence that the hospital had hiked prices to increase federal funding and whether price hikes affected some patients, such as the uninsured, more than others. Berard writes about how she went about obtaining cost reports, what kind of information can be found in them and how she did the analysis. |
Building a database reveals deficient nursing homes Matt Canham of The Salt Lake Tribune scoured nursing home inspection reports – not available online in Utah – and found details of hundreds of deficiencies. He used those reports to build a database that's now available on the paper's Web site for the public to search. Through the data, Canham was able to identify problem homes. Most were “yo-yo” facilities, dipping in and out of compliance. The series also found that ownership is a top predictor of quality, though neither the state nor federal government has good information on who owns these facilities. This article is accompanied by a number of resources, including tip sheets, a video of story ideas, related articles and Web sites. |
A glimpse at health journalism paychecks See the results of a snapshot salary survey taken by more than 100 journalists in March. |
Elizabeth Edwards: How might she advise Obama? Elizabeth Edwards, health care reform advocate and wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, is now advising Sen. Barack Obama's campaign on health care issues and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress where she works on health care issues. In her keynote speech at Health Journalism 2008 in Washington, D.C., Edwards discussed differences between the plans offered by Sen. John McCain, Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. Her talk outlines some important differences, as well as the questions that reporters should be asking the candidates about health care. |
Newspaper risked credibility by making deal with hospital
|
Records show 'dangerous doctors' rarely face discipline
|
Bay Area panel on veterans' health highlights untold stories
|
W.Va. paper chronicles state's oral health problem
In a series of articles published last year, Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reporter Eric Eyre chronicled the abysmal state of dental health in West Virginia. In clinics and private dentists' offices, Eyre found people suffering with painful toothaches, gaping cavities, abscesses, lip cancer, gum infections and molars cracked off because of an unsuccessful attempt at do-it-yourself dentistry. Eyre shares how he reported the story in this article, which is accompanied by a tip sheet, audio from Eyre and a West Virgina dentist and links to relevant Web sites and reports. |
Outsourcing of pharmacies: Prescription for problems?
|
Focus on freelancing: Making sure you're covered for liability
|
Health Journalism 2008: Ripping the cover off hospital finances Karl Stark, pharmaceuticals reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and Gita B. Budd, principal of ECG Management Consultants, provided attendees with a good mix of user-friendly information from about hospital finances from both sides of the writer's pen in "Ripping the Cover off Hospital Finances." |
Health Journalism 2008: Under pressure - FDA oversight, funding, effectiveness This panel of current and former FDA officials and outside experts discusses how FDA resources, policies and legal authority shape agency actions and responses, with an emphasis on the agency's lack of responsiveness to FOIA requests and other media queries. |
Health Journalism 2008: Violence and mental illness - How strong is the link? After the Virginia Tech shooting, journalists must keep a step ahead of the common wisdom when covering stories about mentally ill people and violence. Is violence inevitable or an aberration among the mentally disabled? Can we predict who will become violent? What can be done to treat or restrain mentally ill but potentially violent individuals? A psychiatrist, a medical sociologist, and an advocate for the mentally ill clarify the facts and explicate the controversies. |
Health Journalism 2008: Pros and cons of genetic risk profiling This panel explored the ethical, medical and scientific dimensions of genetic testing. Experts in the field were joined by a 23-year-old woman who has tested positive for a gene linked to breast cancer, and her mother, a breast cancer survivor. They demonstrate that patients have access to more information than ever about their genes, but that knowledge brings an array of choices and consequences. |
Health Journalism 2008: Lies, damned lies and medical statistics - how to interpret the evidence This panel offers examples of widely accepted medical practices and treatments that need a second look, including problems with screening for cancer, focusing on the controversy surrounding CT for lung cancer and PSA testing. Topics include the use of surrogate endpoints; how trial design can be manipulated to achieve the desired outcome; the meaning of such terms as underpowered, number needed to treat, sensitivity, specificity, all-cause mortality and relative risk reduction versus absolute risk reduction. |
Health Journalism 2008: U.S. roles in global health - which direction? In today’s interconnected world, health is an increasingly global issue. The American role in confronting health issues in the world's poorest countries is evolving, with direct involvement from the U.S. government and increasingly-active foundations. Experts on global health delve into trends in addressing international health problems, both successes and failures, and look ahead to future challenges. |
Health Journalism 2008: Medical tourism - trend or aberration? More Americans are going abroad for medical treatment – sometimes with the encouragement of their health insurers and employers. But while much of the medical care overseas is of high quality and far less costly, there are many things would-be “medical tourists” should do before they decide to go for such care. There also are important emerging standards for transport and interoperability of personal health data for medical tourism that could make this more feasible. Three experts in the field discuss pros and cons of medical tourism, and a journalist who has written about this extensively suggests how to cover medical tourism in ways that serve readers. |
Health Journalism 2008: Community ... the health story Everyone knows "good" neighborhoods and "bad" ones. But there are gripping, untold stories to be found in the reasons people in some neighborhoods lead longer and healthier lives than those in others. It's more than a simple tale of wealth vs. poverty, health habits, or years of schooling. Even rich, well-educated people tend to die younger if they live in places strained by inequality and social disconnection. A health expert and a master storyteller discuss how to tell the stories from your community. |
Health Journalism 2008: Edwards says McCain plan gives insurance companies a pass Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards, was the keynote speaker at the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism luncheon. Edwards discussed her view of John McCain's health care plan, revealed which candidate's plan she favored and she called upon journalists to make sure the candidates tell the truth about health care and their plans. |
Health Journalism 2008: Life after cancer - Survivorship planning For many cancer survivors, beating the disease is only the first of many challenges. There's the threat of recurrence and psychological fallout that can take a toll on relationships. Young survivors face educational burdens and decisions that could affect their fertility. Older survivors struggle to hold onto jobs that provide health insurance, or pay the immense costs for treatment, while often dealing with co-morbid conditions. With two-thirds of survivors expected to live at least five years after diagnosis, these issues are very real and relevant to your readers. A cancer survivor and experts discuss the issues. |
Health Journalism 2008: Finding success through the trades Regular gigs from medical and scientific trade magazines can bring a steady flow of income and provide freelancers with lots of ideas for the glossies or even books. Dozens of reputable medical and science trade publications cover the business, science, and technology of health care, crave good writers and top-notch reporting ... and will pay for it. How can you get started writing for trades? How can you find the best trades to fit your skills? What are the benefits? What are the downsides? Our panel of medical trade writers and editors explore this and more. |
Health Journalism 2008: Clinical research into vaccines for cancer and other diseases In the 20th century, 22 vaccines were approved, including those for polio and influenza. So far this century, just one vaccine has made its debut. More nontraditional vaccines are in development for chronic diseases including Alzheimer's, hypertension and other cancers. Two vaccine pioneers, including the developer of the first cancer vaccine, and one of the top federal vaccine policy experts discuss the trend.
|
Health Journalism 2008: What health systems of other countries can teach us Experts discussed four countries with four very different health care systems: Canada, England, France, and the Netherlands. They'll describe what's good and bad in each nation – and offer some lessons for would-be reformers in the United States. |
Health Journalism 2008: Economics of health 101 We spend 16 percent of our economy on health care. A panel of experts explained the financial fundamentals of this huge and confusing system. How the money is spent, who pays the bills, who gets the revenues, the differences among public and private programs, and why health markets are local. |
Health Journalism 2008: Which way health reform? Leading health policy experts from the left, middle and right debated the widely varying options facing lawmakers and voters. |
Health Journalism 2008: Sociological aspects of breast cancer In the United States, African American and Latina women are diagnosed with breast cancer less frequently than white women. But once diagnosed, studies have shown that these women are far more likely to die of their disease. Vanessa Sheppard, a researcher at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, discussed outreach initiatives for both groups and reducing health disparities. |
Health Journalism 2008: How will retiring boomers affect the national health agenda? The first of the nation's Baby Boomers are just three years from retirement age. Experts predict escalating age-related chronic disease and disability, and a health care system ill-prepared to handle them. The nation faces a shortage of geriatricians, a lack of preventive care, a need to better integrate acute and long-term care, and bewildering array of financing options. Panelists discussed those problems and solutions developing at the federal and state level. |
Health Journalism 2008: Current controversies in transplantation This panel at AHCJ's annual conference discussed organ transplantation, which involves genuine rationing, with not enough supply to meet demand. Panelists discussed a variety of tough questions: Should young people be given an advantage over older patients in distribution of donated kidneys? What should hospitals be required to do to protect the interests of living donors? Should the U.S. allow Americans to sell their kidneys? |
Reporter offers testimony to FDA committee about agency's communication policies At the first meeting of the new advisory committee to the FDA on Risk Communications on March 6, 2008, AHCJ member and freelance reporter Kathryn Foxhall testified about the FDA's communications policies. The FDA is just one of many agencies and organizations that use tracking and monitoring by their public relations offices to stifle communication between its employees and the press. |
Scribes and scrubs: A healthy mix While medical journalists, and students, have ready access to the successes of medicine through press conferences, hospital public information officers and journals, they have less opportunity to learn about the complexities and complications involved in patient care, especially in hospitals. Mary Knudson, the science-medical writing adviser in the Master of Arts in Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University, wanted to offer her students a chance to learn about those challenges and problems that are not so readily discussed. Her solution, she explains, put the writing students inside a hospital, where doctors could drop in and talk to the students. It also included shadowing residents for a 15-hour shift, something that opened their eyes to the interactions between patients and doctors. |
Author Q&A: Shannon Brownlee on overtreatment of patients
|
How we did it ... Courant reporters investigate nursing home chain
|
President's corner: Candidates' health reform language needs closer scrutiny, definition
|
Foundations stepping into news game In Florida and Kansas, health foundations are funding news services to gather health policy news and disperse it on the Internet. The trend could take off this year as the Kaiser Family Foundation and the California HealthCare Foundation are considering launching their own types of health news services. |
Bush signs compact with Tanzania, pledges nets to fight malaria President George W. Bush's Feb. 17 visit to the East African nation of Tanzania brought a major boost in the country's health care sector. Bush and Tanzania's President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete signed the largest project in the Millennium Challenge Corporation's history – a $698 million (US) compact with Tanzania that will benefit 4.8 million Tanzanians. AHCJ member Emmanuel Rubagumya, managing editor of Health Focus Magazine in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, reports on Bush's visit. |
Powerful drugs being prescribed off-label to children
|
Freelancers on the hunt for health insurance
|
Women's magazines can miss wider views of health issues Intellectuals began accusing women's magazines of perpetuating feminine stereotypes decades ago. McCall's was the fastest growing of that genre in the 1960s when Betty Frieden wrote "A Feminine Mystique," criticizing stories published in McCall's and similar publications that included traditional, gender-solidifying topics. Forty years later, health is the hot topic for women's general interest magazines, which regularly promote wellness and medical features. These articles can provide valuable information overlooked by the mainstream press, according to researcher Barbara Barnett from the University of Kansas. But the coverage women receive from them often focus on superficial topics and reinforce women stereotypes as caregivers, she says. |
Online jobs scarce for health reporters - but freelance opportunities abound With the explosion of health Internet sites such as Revolution Health, WebMD and Daily Strength, it isn't surprising that many health journalists, squeezed by mainstream media budget cutting, are contemplating moves to online jobs. The opportunities can be enticing for journalists at all stages of their careers, but caveat emptor: For every well-paying job with a well-established health site, there are dozens more offering skimpy compensation, unstable freelance gigs and sometimes questionable content. |
Hospitals ask reporters to sign confidentiality agreements A growing number of hospitals across the country are asking reporters to sign confidentiality statements. The hospitals say they are following guidelines set up this year by The Joint Commission (formerly the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations). Hospitals and the press have always had a challenging relationship, and the privacy rules in HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) further strained communications as hospitals have grown more fearful about the inadvertent release of patient information. |
President's corner: If candidates won't focus on aging issues, journalists better AHCJ President Trudy Lieberman writes that the presidential candidates have been mostly silent about issues that affect the aging. Of the thousands or maybe millions of words that have been written so far about the candidates and their health care proposals, few have been about aging, the quality and financing of long-term care or, for that matter, the future of Medicare - all crucial issues facing this country. You almost might say the candidates are ignoring those topics, which is a shame given the realities of aging in America. |
Reporter documents surgical errors through public records Posted: 11/28/07 by: Pia Christensen
|
Online jobs scarce for health reporters
|
Death in Sin City: Analyzing the CDC's mortality database
|
An introduction to digital audio recording
|
Specialty hospitals, surgery centers call 911 in emergencies
|
SCHIP: Where does it stand and what do journalists need to know?
We interviewed Robin Rudowitz, principal policy analyst for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, about the program and complications in reauthorizing the program. |
Digging into DEA data exposes sharp increase in use of pain medications
|
Point of View: One researcher’s take on rushed reporting Michael Bracken, professor of epidemiology at Yale University, shares his thoughts about health journalism. Bracken is co-author of a study published in the British Medical Journal that looks at the usefulness of animal studies. |
Rats! Animal studies poor predictor of human effect Almost everyday, newspapers and television stations tout the result of animal studies published in major and minor medical and science journals or presented at medical meetings. But just how useful are animal studies to human health? Not very, according to two studies published late last year in the British Medical Journal and the Journal of the American Medical Association. |
‘Sick' mixes health policy history, short narratives for chilling picture Jonathan Cohn, author of "Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis - and the People Who Pay the Price," discusses the process, challenges and pleasures of writing his first book. In his book, Cohn weaves the history of the U.S. health care system with today's issues through stories about real people. |
How we did it: Uncovering mystery deaths in state mental hospitals Alan Judd and Andy Miller of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution write about how they reported a series about deaths in Georgia's mental hospitals. They found that at least 115 patients had died under suspicious circumstances in Georgia's mental hospitals from 2002 to 2006, and that more than 190 patients over that time were victims of employee abuse. |
Inspection reports reveal deficiencies in assisted-living care
|
Election 2008: Where do the candidates stand on health care?
|
Covering HIV/AIDS: 4th IAS Conference and more resources The 4th International AIDS Society's Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention began July 22, 2007, in Sydney, Australia. AHCJ's Web site will be carrying live coverage of the event through kaisernetwork.org and offering additional resources for journalists covering HIV/AIDS. |
Medical misconnections: Patient-safety problems
|
Covering stem cells: Background on science, politics and global competition Terri Somers of the San Diego Union-Tribune offers this backgrounder on covering stem cell research, including history, the importance of stem cells, politics affecting research decisions and the status of research around the world. |
Evidence-based medical reporting: A brief primer This primer offers tips to help health care journalists find, read, and evaluate journal articles that report medical research. The main topics touched on include literature searching, study design, and biostatistical concepts. The primer also includes other tips and suggests additional readings. |
Tips for interviewing service members returning from Iraq, the Middle East or Afghanistan Joe Hight, president of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma's Executive Committee and managing editor of The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, has compiled some tips and advice on interviewing returning veterans. |
Interviewing 'profoundly affected' soldiers Joe Hight, president of the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma's Executive Committee and managing editor of The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City, gets tips from a wounded veteran, experts and journalists on how to interview soldiers returning from Iraq, the Middle East or Afghanistan. |
Journal's new blog breaks stories, offers analysis
|
N.J. pharmaceutical reporter becomes full-time blogger
|
Passion for public service journalism leads to Web site
|
How we did it: Diving into prescription privacy Bob Segall of WTHR-Indianapolis went dumpster diving at drug stores and found that personal prescription records were being thrown out and unsecured. Over two months, Segall and photojournalists found many dumpsters were sitting wide open in drug store parking lots and inside they found hundreds of patient records including names, addresses, phone numbers and birth dates, as well as the medications the patients were taking and the doctors who had prescribed them. |
New CUNY program gives students tools to do more in-depth health reporting The City University of New York has started a concentration in health and medicine reporting. Students are learning how to detect spin, bias and conflicts of interest in health information; read and interpret scientific studies and translate data into understandable stories for the public. |
Health journalism degree programs provide new pathway into field Medical and health information is complicated to understand, and even more so to report. With shrinking newsrooms and fewer specialized beats, the role of a health reporter becomes more critical. To address these changes, several colleges have begun offering medical journalism programs to improve the quality of health writing and reporting. |
Webcast: The Future of the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) With the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) up for reauthorization, this roundtable - a partnership between the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Kaiser Family Foundation - focuses on what journalists need to know about covering SCHIP in their states. |
Depth varies on newspapers’ health Web sites The health pages on the Web sites of many newspapers vary a great deal when it comes to content, interactivity and many other things. We review some of what's out there and come to the conclusion that health reporters should be working closely with the Web staff. |
Best of the AHCJ list: Evaluating newsworthiness of medical studies A recent query on the AHCJ electronic mailing list raised the issue of how to evaluate the significance and newsworthiness of a medical study. The question drew several useful responses from members and we thought it would be useful to share those tips and others here. |
Fatal Food: A study of illness outbreaks Thomas Hargrove, a database analyst and national reporter at Scripps Howard News Service, used food-borne illness outbreak reports collected annually by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find that 64 percent of all outbreaks of food sickness were officially listed as from "unknown" causes and that investigations of outbreaks varied widely among the states. |
How we did it: Investigating organ transplant centers Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber of the Los Angeles Times describe how they went about reporting on problems in organ transplant centers. They describe the data and federal standards they used to document problems, as well as the types of sources they used to report the ongoing story. |
Leah Beth Ward of the Yakima Herald-Republic in Washington decided to investigate after well water at a school was found to have unsafe levels of nitrates. What she found was a failure of government regulatory practices, heavy influence on the state legislature by the dairy industry and an impasse among state agencies responsible for clean water – both drinking and groundwater. Ward writes about how she reported on the contaminated wells, the source of the contamination and the systemic problems that threaten our water supply. 
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found Georgia school and health officials routinely ignore a law requiring that children receive certain vaccinations before they are allowed to enroll in school and take no actions against violators. As a result, thousands of metro Atlanta children were allowed to enroll and remain in school last year without proof of required shots, records show. Reporter Alison Young writes about how she reported the story using state vaccination compliance audit information for 625 public and private schools in five Atlanta-area counties.
Journalists learned about the scope and structure of some of New York's school-based health centers during a field trip to two Bronx schools on Oct. 17, preceding the 2008 Urban Health Journalism Workshop. Children receive basic health care, including things like immunizations and asthma treatments, through clinics in their schools. Officials say such programs improve the health care children receive, as well as easing the burden on their parents. 
Phil Galewitz is editor of AHCJ's newsletter, HealthBeat, an AHCJ board member and a health writer for The Palm Beach Post. The Post recently suffered massive layoffs, like so many newspapers in recent months. Galewitz discusses what it's like to be in a newsroom going through such changes.
AHCJ President Trudy Lieberman urges reporters to write about how the presidential candidates' health care plans will affect ordinary people. She argues that, unless we tell audiences just what they can expect from either candidate, they might really become disengaged. The column's sidebar lists numerous sources and related information to help reporters get started on that task. 
Julie Salamon has written for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker as well as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Her latest project arose from time spent reporting at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she observed the comings and goings of the hospital. The result is her new book, "Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God, and Diversity on Steroids." Salamon took time out from a stop in Maine to answer some questions for AHCJ.
The Capital, a 47,000-circulation daily newspaper in Annapolis, Md., sold its weekly Health Page to Anne Arundel Medical Center, a local hospital, one day in March, putting it in charge of all content, including the stories and layout. The deal was ethically and journalistically wrong, unfair to the readers and a bad business decision, according to experts, and even the paper's publisher. But striking such deals with local hospitals or other medical providers is not uncommon, although they're more predominant among local television stations than newspapers, according to Bob Steele, the journalism values scholar at the Poynter Institute.
Gina Barton of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel describes how she used several sets of data and records, from both state and federal sources, to report the "Dangerous Doctors" series. The articles revealed that Wisconsin doctors are rarely disciplined by the state medical board, even when patients are harmed or die. She found the board is slow to look into complaints, is secretive about its investigations and rarely hands out serious punishment.
A panel of experts gave a compelling presentation about one of the nation's biggest health stories – the medical, mental and psychosocial challenges faced by returning war veterans and their families – at a May 21 meeting of AHCJ's San Francisco Bay Area chapter. An article about the panel, as well as audio of the event and handouts and presentations from the speakers offer numerous story ideas that haven't been covered yet.
In the March issue of Portfolio, Katherine Eban reported on the prescription error that killed a premature infant in a Nevada hospital which had outsourced its pharmacy operations. Eban says hospitals that turn over their pharmacies to management companies often cede nearly total control, a situation that can create a dangerous disconnect between the hospital’s medical staff and the pharmacy. Now Eban explains how she reported the story and offers ideas for reporters who should be looking into hospital pharmacies in their areas.
While most staff writers take for granted that their publications' attorneys will defend them should the subjects of their stories ever get litigious, freelancers can't count on the same protection. Some agreements may make freelance journalists responsible for things such as libel, slander, invasion of privacy or copyright infringement – something that could be risky and costly for health writers doing investigative pieces about a drug, device, doctor or medical institution. Independent journalist Jane Allen writes about liability insurance for freelancers and offers some ways to protect yourself.
Shannon Brownlee's book “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer” challenges one of the core beliefs of American health care: that more is better. “Overtreated” was named the No. 1 economics book of 2007 by The New York Times, over books by Alan Greenspan and Robert Reich. Brownlee talks to AHCJ about the book, how health care is playing into the presidential election, and what health reporters should be asking about and examining.
Lisa Chedekel and Lynne Tuohy of The Hartford Courant used health inspection records, cost reports and court records to disclose that one of Connecticut's largest nursing home chains was repeatedly cited for serious patient-care deficiencies, was deep in debt and that there numerous allegations of wrongdoing in pending litigation. They write about how they went about researching and reporting the story.
The health care vocabulary of the presidential campaign includes terms such as "socialized medicine," "universal," "comprehensive," "guaranteed," "mandate," "coverage," "care" and "choice." Journalists pick up these terms, weave them in their stories, and telegraph a meaning that politicians want, although it may not be the same as the one in the dictionary. AHCJ President Trudy Lieberman calls on journalists to pin down the candidates and explain what the words mean before we let them get away with a smorgasbord of empty terms. 
The St. Petersburg Times' Robert Farley spent six months investigating the skyrocketing amount of atypical antipsychotic drugs being prescribed to children. The drugs, developed to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in adults, increasingly have been prescribed off-label to children with aggressive behavior or ADHD. During his investigation, Farley found that almost no research has been done on the long-term effects of these drugs on the developing brains of children. Here, he talks about how he developed two stories about the drugs and a third one that will be published soon.
Freelance writers often have to shop around for health insurance that is both affordable and adequate. Freelance writer and AHCJ board member Sheree Crute looks at what's available and how to check up on the legitimacy of health insurance companies. We also invite our freelance members to offer their suggestions on the topic. 
When Boston Globe reporter Lizbeth Kowalczyk asked the health department to run a computer search of report and investigation summaries for 2005, 2006 and 2007-to-date, she discovered records of surgeries that involved the wrong site, wrong patient or wrong procedure, and instances of objects left inside patients. The reports showed that procedures to prevent such incidents were not implemented consistently and that some nurses and technicians didn't confront surgeons about lapses, even though they acknowledged later that they knew the what the surgeon was doing was wrong.
With the explosion of health Internet sites such as Revolution Health, WebMD and Daily Strength, it isn't surprising that many health journalists, squeezed by mainstream media budget cutting, are contemplating moving to online publications. The opportunities can be enticing, but caveat emptor: For every well-paying job with a well-established health site, there are dozens more offering skimpy compensation, unstable freelance gigs and sometimes questionable content. 
Alex Richards and Marshall Allen analyzed data from the CDC's mortality database to find out how the causes of death in Nevada and Clark County, home to Las Vegas, compared to the national average. They found that Nevada has the 12th highest death rate among people younger than 65, has a rate of deadly accidental poisoning and exposure to noxious substances that’s almost twice the national rate, has a rate from alcoholic liver disease 1.7 times the national rate and has the highest suicide rate in the nation and a suicide rate among the elderly that’s nearly three times the national rate.
One of the most common queries on AHCJ's electronic mailing list is "How do I record telephone calls?" We've compiled some of the answers and added some background about digital recording. This guide will be expanded to include more about recording in the field, editing audio files and using them on the Web.
Morgan Loew of KPHO-Phoenix analyzed records and found that at least 150 patients were transported to Phoenix-area emergency rooms over the past seven years after undergoing procedures at specialty hospitals and surgical centers. While patients may assume these places are equipped to handle emergencies, many are not. Loew offers tips on doing similar reporting and warns of some obstacles reporters might face and how to get around them. 
Congress and President Bush are at odds over legislation that would reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program, which insures 6 million children whose families can't afford insurance but who do not qualify for Medicaid.
In this article written for AHCJ, Frank Bass of The Associated Press explains how he analyzed DEA records to find that sales of five leading painkillers nearly doubled from 1997 to 2005. He also offers some explanations about why the use of painkillers is on the rise and points out some traps that reporters should avoid when writing about the topic.
Ziva Branstetter of The Tulsa World recently reported a series of articles about assisted-living centers. She found that the public is remarkably uninformed about major issues such as what services to expect in assisted living, when to choose a higher level of care and what a center's inspection records reveal. In addition, "assisted living" can mean different things to different people and in different states, and there are no specific federal regulations governing assisted-living centers; each state has its own standards. 
As the 2008 presidential campaign intensifies, AHCJ will be tracking the candidates' positions on health care issues. Use our chart and more in-depth pages to see where the candidates stand on access to health care and which ones have released a plan for health care. We'll be updating the information and expanding to include positions on other important health issues, such as stem cell research, abortion and more.
David Wahlberg of the Wisconsin State Journal reported on patient-safety problems, including tubing misconnections, incompatible defibrillator pads, nurse fatigue and more. In an article for AHCJ members, Wahlberg explains how he reported the series and offers tips for other reporters.
In March, The Wall Street Journal launched the Health Blog, an attempt to meld the Journal's standards for reporting and writing about health care with the immediacy and community that blogs make possible. Scott Hensley, news editor in The Wall Street Journal's Health and Science Bureau, explains the purpose of the blog and what the paper and Web site hope to accomplish.
The Star-Ledger's Ed Silverman is a new breed of big city health reporter. Since January, he's become a full-time Web blogger for the newspaper. The site is designed more for people working in the industry rather than consumers who are the end users. The Web site, which does not yet have any advertising, keeps a running stream of headlines to give users the news of the day. It also has a list of blog posts from Silverman and a place for readers to add their comments. Silverman makes as many as 10 posts a day to the site.
Carol Gentry, a senior health reporter for the Tampa Tribune, has founded Florida Health News Inc. (FHN), a nonprofit online news service dedicated to informing citizens, policy makers and journalists about health policy and finance issues around the state. In its first phase, the site has posted health policy stories from news media throughout Florida, tracked legislative activities and highlighted Florida studies. The site is intended to be a one-stop resource for Florida journalists trying to navigate the complexity of important health policy developments. Reporters can request e-mail news alerts, giving them timely and easy access to vital background information.