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=355 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. The examination found that the Hospital District has squandered opportunities to improve care and compassion as it has chased insured patients pursued by every other Tarrant hospital. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=356 NPR reporter Joseph Shapiro produces two stories that tell about a recent rash of prescription drug overdoses leading to death in army hospitals, and how the hospitals are changing their policies to prevent them. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=357 JoNel Aleccia writes on MSNBC.com about the bacterial infection Clostridium difficile which, historically benign and easily treated, was usually found in older patients in hospitals and nursing homes. However, a mutated form of this infection, referred to as C. diff., produces roughly 20 times the toxins responsible for illnesses ranging from simple diarrhea to blood poisoning - and death. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=358 Reports from WBNS-Columbus, Ohio, and WJLA-Washington, D.C. show that high levels of lead contamination can be found in the porcelain part of dental crowns and bridges imported from China. An investigation by WJLA's I-Team found levels as high as 490 parts per million in imported crowns. The level that a congressional committee wants to set for toys is 90 parts per million. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=353 Karl Stark of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes about problems found in a Merck & Co. Inc. vaccine plant after the Food and Drug Administration completed a 30-day inspection. Unwanted "fibers" on the stoppers of vaccine vials and instances of contaminated children's vaccines are among the 49 cited areas of concern. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=354 A story by Philadelphia Inquirer staff writer Tom Avril describes the recently published results of gene therapy for a rare retinal mutation that causes blindness. Testing shows that the eyesight of all three patients has improved in the months following the procedure. The Inquirer followed the trial over eight months under the agreement that it would not print an account until the research was published in an academic journal. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=352 Mary Engel of the Los Angeles Times writes that the city's emergency rooms are having a hard time finding specialists willing to come in on call to treat patients. A 2006 survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that 73 percent of emergency departments in the United States had inadequate on-call coverage by specialist physicians. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=351 Two articles explore what falling autopsy rates mean for the future of medicine and how doctors are in some cases misinterpreting causes of death without them. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=350 Oregonian reporter Julie Sullivan writes about the Northwest researcher who found the breast cancer gene in 1990 and tells the story of four sisters who had hysterectomies after discovering they had all inherited the gene. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=347 Clark Kauffman of the Des Moines Register writes about the difficulty state regulators have in changing Iowa laws and regulations governing hospitals. The reason, they say, is the "unprecedented say" that hospital officials have over the matter – the Hospital Licensing Board and the Iowa Hospital Association are made up entirely of current and former hospital administrators. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=346 On a segment of Science Friday, host Ira Flatow talks with former NIH director Harold Varmus, a leading proponent of open access to research. The interview was conducted after the announcement that reports of research funded by the National Institutes of Health must be made freely available after a maximum of one year. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=345 Trudy Lieberman writes about money paid to lobbyists by health insurers in the Columbia Journalism Review, citing an article in Health Plan Week that took an in-depth look at spending patterns. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=344 John Dickerson of the Phoenix New Times investigates the Arizona Homeopathic Board of Medical Examiners. The board has secured licenses to practice homeopathy for doctors whose conventional licenses had been revoked, allowing them to practice homeopathy in Arizona. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=342 Concerned by incidents in which hospitals have attempted to restrict newsgathering, the Association of Health Care Journalists strongly urges reporters to resist signing confidentiality agreements with hospitals. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=341 Frontline and Washington Post foreign correspondent T.R. Reid teamed up to find out how five other capitalist democracies – the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland – deliver health care, and what the United States might learn from their successes and their failures. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=340 In a two-part series, Jim Doyle of the San Francisco Chronicle explores problems with San Francisco's emergency response system, including slow response times and shortages of dispatchers and paramedics. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=339 Robert Pear of The New York Times writes about "Popline," a reproductive health database managed by Johns Hopkins University. The university said the database was programmed to ignore the term "abortion" in searches "after finding two articles about abortion advocacy" in the database that they felt didn't fit database criteria. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news-details.php?id=338 More than two-thirds of health care reporters taking part in a First Amendment survey have had stories held or left unpublished because the Food and Drug Administration did not respond to FOIA requests in a timely manner. http://www.healthjournalism.org/health-news.php Read the complete archive of Hot Headlines