http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog Keeping journalists informed – and connected. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:36:24 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The May issue of the American Journal of Public Health, published online today, focuses on data showing significant health disparities among Asian American, Pacific Islander, Native Hawaiian, and Asian immigrant populations. The issue explores the health threats faced by these minority groups – particularly from cancer, which ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/journal-focuses-on-aa-and-nhpi-health-disparities/ The Association of Health Care Journalists has asked eight medical organizations to end their policies that bar journalists from recording or photographing the meetings where new scientific research is presented. Such policies make it difficult for journalists to provide complete and accurate information to the public. ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/ahcj-seeks-change-in-medical-meeting-policies/ University of Pennsylvania researchers reviewed 436 cancer-related newspaper and magazine stories (about 1/5 of the total) published between 2005 and 2007 and found that media tend to overhype aggressive treatments and avoid failures, errors, end of life care and death. Here's the abstract in Archives of Internal Medicine. In the press ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/researchers-analyze-medias-cancer-reporting/ Crikey.com, a news Web site based in Melbourne, Australia, calls our attention to some recent reporting about Mabthera, a drug used to treat non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Nick Miller, health editor of The Age, recently reported that Mabthera, manufactured by Roche, "has been found to nearly double the number of [leukemia] patients who ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/roche-linked-to-doctor-praising-drug-in-the-media/ England's Care Quality Commission, a regulatory agency, has found that a quarter of the National Health Services hospital trusts fail to meet basic standards of hygiene, according to The Telegraph's Andrew Hough. Some of the failures included 36 trusts not providing areas to decontaminate instruments, three trusts failing to regularly flush ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/reports-reveal-problems-in-englands-nhs/ The Data Mine, a project from the Center for Public Integrity and the Sunlight Foundation that highlights inaccessible or poorly presented information from the federal government, invites readers to participate in Sunshine Week by tipping them to government data, records and reports that should ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/sunshine-week-proposals-would-affect-access/ AHCJ member Daniel Lathrop, who has been the chief digital strategist for InvestigateWest since its July 2009 launch, will be joining the Dallas Morning News on March 22 as its first news applications editor. Lathrop will help the paper identify and obtain databases of public information. He also will be responsible ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/lathrop-to-oversee-public-databases-in-dallas/ Poynter Institute's Al Tompkins takes a look at hockey injuries, especially head injuries. Photo by Alex Kehr via Flickr He points to an article in the Globe and Mail about the long-term effect of concussions and what Canada is doing to combat the issue, contrasted with what some places in the United ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/focus-on-hockeys-head-injuries-grows/ SPLC open records audit examines suicide expulsion policies White House memo of March 16, 2010, encourages agencies to ensure full implementation of the President’s Memorandum on FOIA Leahy, Cornyn Commemorate Sunshine Week With Faster FOIA Act Introduction Public Online Information Act to be introduced by Steve Israel (D-N.Y) Sunshine and Shadows:The Clear Obama ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/sunshine-week-some-of-the-latest-news/ "Driven to Distraction," a New York Times series that looks at the "dangers of drivers using cellphones and other electronic devices, and efforts to deal with the problem," turns its focus on first responders, such as police and paramedics. Photo by rKistian via Flickr Reporter Matt Richtel points out that emergency drivers ... http://www.healthjournalism.org/blog/2010/03/are-emergency-drivers-distracted-by-technology/