Hot Health Headlines

Fort Worth hospital district exposed: Money, insured patients top priority

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.

Patients overdose in Army hospitals

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.

Mutant form of diarrhea-causing bacteria leads to death

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.

Dangerous levels of lead found in dental work

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.

Problems at Merck plant cited by FDA inspectors

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.

Researchers test gene therapy on the blind, results show improvement

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.

ERs struggle without specialists

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.

Families, experts question falling autopsy rates

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.

Using DNA, families fight to keep prevent cancer

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.

Iowa regulators struggle with hospitals to change laws

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.

NIH reports must be made public after one year

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.

Insurers' payments to lobbyists on the rise

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.

Ariz. homeopathic board lets doctors with revoked licenses practice

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.

Health reporters take stand against hospital confidentiality agreements

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.

Sick around the world

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.

Johns Hopkins database ignored 'abortion' in searches

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.

San Francisco emergency response system needs improvement

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.

FOIA survey: FDA's slow response means stories go unpublished

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.

Children's dental clinic criticized

Karen Shideler of the Wichita Eagle writes about Small Smiles, a national chain of children's dental clinics that has been drawing criticism from parents and other dentists in the area. Small Smiles was the focus of an investigative television story in Washington, D.C.

Brain images make false stories more credible

"60-Second Psych," a podcast feature from The Scientific American, highlights recently published research showing that people rate stories accompanied by Technicolor brain maps as more credible than those without.

Consumers with health savings accounts unprotected from increasing premiums

Chen May Yee of the Minneapolis Star Tribune examines the growth of health savings accounts in Minnesota and problems consumers and insurers are having making the low premium/high deductible concept live up to expectations.

Ventilator shortage raises concerns in Minn.

Warren Wolfe of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes about a recent shortage of ventilators in Minnesota. Health officials are concerned that it's an indicator of the state's capacity to handle a health crisis, such as a flu pandemic.

Health worker helps parolees stay out of ERs

In the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Bernice Yeung profiles Ron Sanders, a community health worker for the Transitions Clinic, a medical program for parolees who don't have money or resources.

Special Report - Newspro: Health Care Journalism

TelevisionWeek takes a look at health care journalism with an eye toward AHCJ's conference.

Palliative care: Choosing quality over longer lives

Josephine Marcotty of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes about the increasing popularity of palliative care

Holistic 'boot camp' helps patients control chronic pain

The Associated Press' Carla K. Johnson writes about a "boot camp" approach to reducing the effects of chronic pain for the estimated millions of Americans who suffer from it.

Having one baby to cure another

Newsday reporter Beth Whitehouse tells the story of a family that struggled with the decision to have another baby to cure their daughter Katie, who was born with the rare bone marrow disease, diamond blackfan anemia. Controlling the genetics of their new baby to exactly match one portion of Katie's DNA was essential to the process, and the family had to carefully weigh decisions that raise moral and ethical questions for many.

Pharma weighs presidential candidates

Karl Stark of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes about the pharmaceutical industry's search for the right candidate to support for the presidential election. In the past, the industry has leaned toward the Republican side, but so far this election, Sen. Hillary Clinton has received the most donations.

More doctors won't necessarily solve 'shortage'

In The Atlantic Monthly, Shannon Brownlee responds to talk of a physician shortage that is spurring medical schools to increase admissions. The reality, Brownlee says, is that while more physicians in underserved areas would be beneficial, most doctors will continue to choose to work in areas where the money is, and where there is already a saturation of doctors, especially specialists.

Mississippi health department faces questions about poor care

Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson, Miss. Clarion-Ledger wrote a series of stories uncovering how disease outbreaks and an alarming increase in infant mortality rates went unreported by the Mississippi Department of Health. The series won a Polk Award for State Reporting.

Patients risk shortened life by transplanting liver too soon

An investigation by reporters Luis Fabregas and Andrew Conte of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review presents the problems with transplanting a liver before a patient is sick enough to need it. According to the three-day series, one in 10 of these transplant patients die when they could have lived longer without the transplant.

Outsourcing pharmacies increases hospital error

Katherine Eban's article in Portfolio describes how some hospital are outsourcing their pharmacies to drug-distribution companies with little medical expertise, resulting in fatal errors.

Mental health reform fails in North Carolina

Lynn Bonner, David Raynor and Pat Stith of the North Carolina News & Observer put together a five-part series and multimedia package examining the mental health system in the state.

Conn. nursing homes give antipsychotics to residents without disorders

Lisa Chedekel of the Hartford Courant reports that Connecticut nursing homes give antipsychotic drugs to residents without psychotic disorders at one of the highest rates in the country, raising questions about whether they are being used to subdue patients because of a lack of staffing.

Drugs found in 24 metro drinking supplies

Associated Press writers Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza and Justin Pritchard report on an investigation that found a vast array of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water supply of at least 41 million Americans living in 24 major metropolitan areas in the U.S. Although the concentrations are very small, some scientists are worried about the long-term effects it can have on human health.

Officials: Flawed procedures may be to blame in Las Vegas hepatitis scare

Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun reports that a clinic owned by one of Nevada's most prominent physicians put patients at risk of contracting hepatitis and HIV. Health officials said the staff commonly used the same syringe more than once on a single patient while administering anesthesia and used single-dose vials of medicine on more than one patient. Up to 40,000 patients may have been exposed; six have been identified by health authorities as having been infected with hepatitis C at the clinic, which has been shut down — along with five sister clinics.

More W.V. young adults die from drug overdoses than from guns

Scott Finn of West Virgina Public Broadcasting reports that in West Virginia, overdoses are the leading cause of death for young adults, surpassing guns for the first time. According to researchers, most of the deaths come from overdosing on prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone.

McCain chooses sides in autism debate

Jake Tapper, ABC News' senior national correspondent, writes in his blog, "Political Punch," that presidential candidate John McCain seems to have taken sides in a debate that argues whether or not thimerosal is responsible for the growing number of cases of autism. When responding to the question from the mother of a boy with autism at a town hall meeting in Texas, he declared that there is "strong evidence" that the mercury-based vaccine preservative is indeed a factor in increasing diagnoses.

UCLA program helps Hispanic med students prepare for U.S. residency

Myrle Croasdale of American Medical News writes about a UCLA program that hopes to increase the number of Spanish-speaking physicians in California by helping medical school graduates from Spanish-speaking countries prepare and qualify for U.S. residencies. Hispanics make up 36 percent of California's population and nearly half of the Los Angeles area. Meanwhile, 4 percent of the state's physicians are Hispanic.

U.S. surgeon, physician shortage puts pinch on rural hospitals

Robert Davis of USA Today writes about the shortage of surgeons and family practice doctors and how it is affecting hospitals in rural areas of the United States. In the 1980s and 1990s, U.S. medical schools put a cap on enrollment, expecting managed care to create a surplus of doctors. Medical schools kept their enrollment numbers flat from 1980 to 2005, while the U.S. population grew by more than 70 million.

Analysis shows diverse group of people fall victim to prescription drug overdoses

Chris Tisch and Abbie Vansickle of the St. Petersburg Times report that prescription drug overdoses killed 433 people in the bay area in 2006. The Times used autopsy records and investigators' reports from four counties to build a database and analyze 645 accidental deaths for trends and patterns.

Crowding stresses ERs in Kansas City

Julius Karash of The Kansas City Star reports that, as ER overcrowding reaches crisis levels, ambulance diversions are becoming routine - particularly in the urban core - raising concerns about quality of care and hospital balance sheets.

Effort to bring sick girl to U.S. for treatment is chronicled

Greg Mellen and Jeff Gritchen of the Long Beach Press-Telegram are blogging from Cambodia, where they have gone with a group working to bring a young girl to the United States to treat her damaged heart.

Airlines delay testing of onboard water

Michael Finney of KGO-San Francisco reports that EPA tests conducted in 2004 on 327 planes found that 15 had water contaminated with coliform. Coliform bacteria are the commonly used indicator of the sanitary quality of food and water and, while unlikely themselves to cause illness, their presence in drinking water indicates that disease-causing organisms could be present.

Heart attack resuscitation rates low in Cleveland area

WJW-Cleveland's Tom Merriman investigated cardiac arrest resuscitation rates in Cleveland and the surrounding area and found that in most places, the rates are in the single digits. Cleveland is the home of the Cleveland Clinic, renowned for its cutting-edge cardiac care, but the I-Team found that in most areas, emergency response systems are slow.

Insurance companies' ratings inaccurate, doctors say

Jason Roberson of the Dallas Morning News writes about the system insurance companies use to rate physicians on efficiency and cost and why some doctors are pushing to ban these public rankings. According to doctors in the article, the rating systems are inaccurate because the insurers are basing them off bills submitted to them without ever talking to the doctor about the whole story.

Blue Cross asked doctors for info that put patients at risk of losing insurance

Lisa Girion's article in the Los Angeles Times describes a letter sent out by Blue Cross to physicians requesting information about new patients that could lead to the cancellation of their insurance policy. The company is asking doctors to disclose any pre-existing conditions the patients left off their insurance application. Blue Cross has the right to cancel policies of anyone who failed to disclose medical information within the first two years.

Speed, volume contribute to devastating pharmacy mistakes

A series in USA Today highlights pharmacy errors, their causes and what some pharmacies are doing to lower them. The series includes stories detailing cases in which prescriptions were wrongly filled. The reporter also talked to two pharmacists. One, who is retired, argues that corporate policies of high-volume chains like Walgreen's and CVS contribute to errors while the other, an active pharmacist, says those policies reduce errors. One installment of the series explains that many lawsuits are settled quietly, with confidentiality agreements.

Study finds health hazards in Great Lakes; CDC blocks publication

An article by Sheila Kaplan for The Center for Public Integrity reveals parts of a report on environmental hazards in the Great Lakes that the CDC barred from publication in July 2007. Kaplan cites from the study, which warns that more than 9 million people who live in the more than two dozen "areas of concern" – including major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee – may face elevated health risks from being exposed to dioxin, PCBs, pesticides, lead, mercury, or six other hazardous pollutants.

The 'graying' of HIV patients brings age-specific problems

Mary Engel of the Los Angeles Times writes about the experiences of aging Americans with HIV. According to doctors, ailments common to aging, such as depression, are appearing earlier in people with HIV. Physicians are now trying to determine which conditions are caused by the virus, which are caused by the numerous medications taken to treat the virus and which are merely signs of aging.

More hitting health insurance caps

Christopher Lee of the Washington Post writes about American families who are learning the hard way that simply having health insurance does not keep them out of medical debt.

New consent forms use video, diagrams to better inform patients

Laura Landro of The Wall Street Journal writes about new solutions for confusing and burdensome informed-consent forms. Concern about patient safety and lawsuits arising from miscommunication are causing doctors and hospitals to redesign their informed-consent procedures to make sure patients better understand the care they are about to receive. Hospitals are offering explanatory videos and diagrams with legal-consent forms, translating medical lingo into simple English and offering materials in other languages.

Questions arise about Lipitor ad

The New York Times' Stephanie Saul writes about the controversy surrounding a Lipitor ad campaign featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik, who helped develop the artificial heart in the 1980s. The ads feature Dr. Jarvik rowing in a mountain lake and talking about the benefits of taking the drug to lower cholesterol. Critics question Jarvik's credentials - he is not a cardiologist, nor is he licensed to practice medicine. They also question the ethics of posing Jarvik as a rower when in reality he is not - a stunt double was used for the scenes in the commercial.

Subprime mortgage crisis affects hospital finances

James Unland, editor of the Journal of Health Care Finance, spoke with two experts in the finance industry about how the subprime mortgage crisis is affecting hospital capital finance.

Little recourse for drug trial participants

Sarah Rubenstein of The Wall Street Journal reports that patients have little recourse when drug trials go wrong. "Federal law does not require researchers to compensate participants harmed in such trials. It merely requires that their consent forms spell out whether compensation will be available for research-related injuries in trials that involve more than minimal risk." No government agency regulates all clinical trials, so there is a dearth of data about injuries from clinical trials. Rubenstein points out that it can be difficult to determine if a condition was caused by a drug trial.

Poor oral health plagues Kentucky poor

Ian Urbina of The New York Times writes about the dental care crisis in Kentucky, the state with the highest proportion of adults under 65 without teeth. According to the article, Kentucky is also among the worst states nationally in the proportion of low-income residents served by free or subsidized dental clinics. Less than a fourth of the state's dentists regularly take Medicaid, according to 2005 federal data.

Drug industry news blog talks about taking advantage of network

David Cohn of beatblogging.org talks with Newark, N.J., Star-Ledger editor John Hassel who oversees reporter Ed Silverman and his blog, Pharmalot. The blog, which keeps a very updated list of news and views of the drug industry, has been running independently from the newspaper for one year now.

Autism therapy scarce, expensive, often uncovered by insurance

Maureen O'Hagan of The Seattle Times writes about the problems families encounter in providing the therapy for autism recommended by national experts. According to the article, most insurance companies don't cover the 25-hours-a-week intensive therapy sessions that neurologists are beginning to prescribe to improve the functioning abilities of autistic children.

Change in care, new problems for Oregon's developmentally disabled

Michelle Roberts of The Oregonian writes about the numerous accounts of abuse and neglect recorded in Oregon's 1,200 foster and group homes for the developmentally disabled.

'Bundling' processes may prevent infection in hospitals

Allison Baker of USA Today writes about a system some hospitals have adopted to prevent potentially fatal bacterial infections called "bundling." Bundles are made up of proven medical treatments performed together to stave off serious complications that are often associated with certain risky treatments.

Clinical trials use professional 'guinea pigs'

The New Yorker's Carl Elliot writes about drug-safety trials in the private sector that pay healthy human subjects to participate. According to the abstract, 70 percent of clinical trials are now conducted in the private sector and that for many test subjects, "guinea pigging" has become a job.

AMA increases spending on 'Voice for the Uninsured Campaign'

Bruce Japsen of the Chicago Tribune writes about the American Medical Association's Voice for the Uninsured Campaign that began in August 2007. The association will spend $15 million this year compared to $5 million spent from its inception through the end of last year.

Pharmacist shortage sparks expansion of university program

Dave Ranney of the Kansas Health Institute News Service writes about a shortage of pharmacists in the state that is especially affecting rural areas. According to the article, six counties in Kansas don't have a single pharmacist, while 30 more have only one.

Lawsuit: Factory pollution caused high rate of brain cancer

Kevin P. Craver of the Northwest Herald (McHenry County, Ill.) spent six months investigating a lawsuit filed against Rohm and Haas Manufacturing by residents of the village of McCullom Lake, where 15 people were diagnosed with rare forms of brain cancer. The population of the village is about 1,000.

Parents struggle, often alone, after a baby dies

In an Oregonian special report, reporter Julie Sullivan writes about the emotional experience for parents who lose their babies, either through miscarriage, stillbirth or infant death. According to the article, nearly a million families in the U.S. experience the death of a baby every year, yet the emotional aftermath for parents is largely overlooked.

Frontline explores bipolar diagnosis in children

PBS Frontline producer Marcela Gaviria put together a program called "The Medicated Child" which explores the dramatically increasing number of children being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. According to the program, in the mid-1990s bipolar in children began to be diagnosed at much higher rates, sometimes in kids as young as 4 years old. To treat the disorder, children are put on medications that have only been tested for adults.

In Katrina aftermath, reporter narrows focus to mental health

In a Nieman Report, Joshua Norman talks about his experience covering the health beat at the Sun Herald in Biloxi/Gulfport, Miss. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Norman discovered that the stress of the devastation was causing an increase in suicides, domestic violence and alcoholism. When he was offered a Kaiser Media Fellowship, he decided to focus his efforts on covering mental health, an area that rarely gets undivided attention as a separate beat.

TV news director resigns after ethics dispute

Julian Emerson of the Eau Claire, Wis., Leader-Telegram writes about a local television news director who resigned after disagreeing with management about an exclusive agreement with one area hospital. According to Glen Mabie, the news director of WEAU-Eau Claire, station management attempted in recent weeks to negotiate a deal with Sacred Heart Hospital in which the station would run medical stories featuring personnel from that hospital and its affiliates but not employees of other Chippewa Valley hospitals or clinics.

Affluent children more likely to be classified as autistic

John Hildebrand of Newsday writes about the results of a survey that shows that children in affluent school districts on Long Island are five times more likely to be classified with autism than those in the poorer districts. According to the article, a push to expand special-education help for students with autism has largely bypassed Long Island's poorest communities, creating what family advocates view as damaging gaps in services for minority youngsters and those speaking limited English.

Bar-coded chips help keep track of surgical sponges

The Chicago Tribune's Bruce Japsen writes about new technology that allows surgeons to keep track of sponges and other items used during operations. SurgiCount and its distribution partner, Cardinal Health Inc., are introducing a bar-coding system that should help operating-room nurses and technicians keep track of sponges and other items and cut down on the number of objects left behind in the patient's body after the surgery ends.

Mother, son attempt suicide; change in medication turns lives around

Mary K. Reinhart of the East Valley Tribune (Phoenix) tell the story of a family coping after mother and son, both with bipolar disorder, attempted suicide together. Both survived, but the mother was charged with child abuse and put on probation for 10 years. Doctors later discovered that both were on medications that later received "black box" warnings for invoking suicidal tendencies.

HHS: Most specialty hospitals not ready for emergencies

The inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services has issued a report finding that most physician-owned specialty hospitals are poorly equipped to handle emergencies. Morgan Loew of KPHO-Phoenix reported on this issue last year and wrote about the subject in an article for AHCJ. His article includes tips for other reporters looking into emergency care at specialty hospitals.

Trial participant develops leukemia - is there a connection?

A story in The Scientist by Ivan Oransky tells the story of a clinical trial participant who later developed leukemia. Oransky, who followed Doug Bergman through a cardiac stem cell trial in August 2006, explores the possibility of whether it is related to Bergman's current condition.

Public hospitals in peril

Shaila Dewan and Kevin Sack of the New York Times write about a public hospital in Atlanta experiencing a financial crisis that may lead to closure. The hospital, Grady Memorial, is one of the nation's largest safety-net hospitals and a third of the hospital's patients are uninsured.

Coordinators help far-away children care for aging parents

A Los Angeles Times article by Jonathan Peterson highlights a new group of care coordinators that is emerging in response to the needs of children who are looking after aging parents from a distance.

Internet pharmacies post fake trademarks, mislead consumers

An article by Diane C. Lade of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel describes the concern that the Better Business Bureau and other professional groups have about Internet drug companies that falsely claim accreditation from their organizations.

Role of the Internet in medical tourism

Noah Barron, in Online Journalism Review, reports on how consumers use the Internet to research foreign clinics. While it is difficult to pin down how many Americans travel to other countries for medical care, we do know that many, if not all, of them are using the Internet in their search. NPR's Greg Allen has a related piece about employers and insurers considering medical treatment abroad.

Biomedical waste lies below park, school fields

KCET, Los Angeles' public television station, aired Hena Cuevas' report about a biomedical waste dump from the 1950s and '60s that is now used as a dog park and private school athletic field.

Board looks into chiropractor's contracts with patients

Karen Shideler of The Wichita Eagle writes about a dispute between a chiropractor and his patients that stems from his practice of using flat-fee contracts that "set an up-front charge for a series of treatments. The charge is the same whether a patient ultimately gets no treatments or many."

NFL players discuss use of painkillers

Joe Henderson of the Tampa Tribune reports that doctors are seeing an increase in the number of current and former NFL players who are either addicted or physically dependent on painkillers. A doctor who specializes in treating athletes with addictions problems says pain medications are "10 times more common" in sports than steroids.

Inmate deaths raise questions about care

The (Springfield, Ill.) State Journal-Register reports on recent deaths in the county jail - three deaths in less than three months. The sheriff and other officials  say that inmates are coming into the system sicker than they used to, but the experts counter that all jails are facing that reality and suggest the sheriffs office may need to make some changes.

Six killers account for 25 percent of nation's health care costs

The New York Times' series "Six Killers" examines the leading causes of illness and death in the United States: heart disease, cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

Scientists find cause, cure for Alzheimer's elusive

Terry McDermott of the Los Angeles Times writes about the search for a cure and prevention of Alzheimer's. Scientists aren't sure what causes it, making development of a cure perplexing.

Clinical trial included disproportionate numbers of minorities

Steve Neavling of the Detroit Free Press reports that a clinical trial for an experimental blood substitute was carried out in cities with high populations of minorities than the average. In the study, 13 cities combined for an average minority population nearly twice the national average. The story says, "So far, studies have shown that recipients of the blood substitute faced higher health risks than those who received the traditional treatment."

Changes to India's patent laws could deprive poor of cheap generics

HDNet's Dan Rather Reports covered recent changes in India's patent laws that could soon make low-cost generic medicines unaffordable in many parts of the world.

Bill to improve FOIA response goes to Bush

The Federal Times reports that a bill that would strengthen regulations for offices that respond to Freedom of Information Act requests has passed Congress and has gone to the president.

Journal article analyzes media coverage of depression

An article in the journal Society looks at how the media reports on the causes of depression. The authors write that while the cause of depression is unknown, the theory that neurotransmitter imbalances are the cause is promoted by the pharmaceutical industry and the psychiatric profession. They examine media reports referring to this chemical imbalance theory and ask reporters for evidence supporting their claims.

Column: Level the playing field for coverage of disabilities

Susan M. LoTempio of the The Buffalo News wrote a column for the Poynter Web site about covering injuries and disabilities. She says reporting about Kevin Everett, the Buffalo Bills player who suffered a serious spine injury on the filed in September, "exemplified the distinction between how people view athletes and the disabled. And how the news media pick up on that."

Caller alleges man was beaten to death in nursing home

Scott Glover of the Los Angeles Times tells writes about Rita Kittower, 83, and how she learned her husband may have been beaten to death in the nursing home where he lived. The nursing home told Kittower that her husband of 49 years, who had been in the nursing home since a severe stroke, had just stopped breathing.

Returning vets fight battle with illegal drugs

Six graduate journalism students joined ABC News' investigative team, led by Brian Ross, this summer to examine whether, as happened in the wake of the Vietnam War, Iraqi war veterans were turning to drugs as a result of the trauma and pain of war.

Issues remain before personal health records go mainstream

Knowledge@Wharton, the online business journal of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, looks at recent growth and developments in the online sharing of personal health information. It explores privacy concerns, lack of a standard for sharing medical information and an industry that is reluctant to change as some of the hurdles in establishing personal health records.

Tracking dangerous drugs from China

Walt Bogdanich of The New York Times reports that "Massive free trade zones like those in Dubai are being used by counterfeiters to smuggle fake drugs from China to Europe and the United States." Counterfeiters are using the free trade zones to launder or hide where a drug is coming from. The story is part of a series, "A Toxic Pipeline," that examines "how dangerous and poisonous pharmaceutical ingredients from China have flowed into the global market.

Drug companies find few incentives for most pediatric testing

Dan Rather, in an episode of Dan Rather Reports on HDNet, looks at why there have been so few studies of prescription medicines in children. Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler says he tried to get more pediatric studies done when he was with the FDA but the pharmaceutical industry wasn't interested because there wasn't money to be made in that market.

Wonder drug to treat addiction is increasingly abused

Fred Schulte and Doug Donovan of The (Baltimore) Sun report on the growing abuse of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat heroin and pain-pill addict. "Federal officials have spent millions of dollars to help create and promote buprenorphine, and are encouraging thousands of private doctors to prescribe it. But making buprenorphine widely available has also made it easy for patients to sell the narcotic illegally, leading to growing abuse."

Antipsychotic may be approved to treat children

Robert Farley of the St. Petersburg Times reports that Zyprexa, used to treat adults with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, may be approved for adolescents despite dangerous side effects. After becoming a top-selling drug, it was found to have dangerous side effects and the manufacturer, Eli Lilly, paid more than $1 billion to settle lawsuits over the drug. Now, even though studies show that kids are even more susceptible to Zyprexa's dangerous side effects, Lilly wants the government's seal of approval for adolescents to use it. And the FDA is about to say yes.

Foundation's work in Africa has a dark side

Charles Piller and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times report on the unintended consequences of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation has targeted AIDS, TB and malaria because of their devastating health and economic effects in sub-Saharan Africa. But the Times' investigation finds that programs the foundation has funded have had mixed influences on key measures of societal health

Jail's health care raises questions; new model of care planned

Naseem Miller of the Ocala (Fla.) Star-Banner investigated health care in the Marion County Jail, where care is provided by Prison Health Services Inc. a Brentwood, Tenn.-based private company. During the seven-month inquiry, the Star-Banner spoke to nearly a dozen inmates, reviewed hundreds of pages of medical records and invited medical experts not affiliated with the jail to review the policies and procedures of PHS.

The investigation found:
• PHS is often reluctant to prescribe medication to mentally ill inmates
• Twenty-five inmates have died while in the jail's custody in the past five years, including six who took their own lives.
• Many of the jail's medical staff and guards are skeptical of inmates' medical complaints
• PHS has been the subject of numerous lawsuits
• No state health agency oversees the medical operation of jails

On Jan. 2, Ocala Community Care Inc. will replace PHS as the health care provider at the jail. Ocala Community Care Inc. will collaborate with local health care providers to extend inmate health care beyond the jail's steel bars, and eventually incorporate it into the community's health care system.

Poor decisions, errors lead to high suicide rate in Mass. prisons

The Boston Globe's Spotlight team, including Beth Healy, Francie Latour, Michael Rezendes, Jonathan Saltzman and editor Thomas Farragher, write about suicides in Massachusetts prisons. "With 15 suicides in three years, inmates have taken their own lives in Massachusetts prisons at roughly triple the national rate for state prisons. And hundreds more inmates are hurting themselves and attempting suicide." The Globe "found that most of the deaths came after careless errors and deadly decisions by Department of Correction officials and health staff, at times when inmates were obviously at risk."

Computer graphics would let doctors practice before surgery

Larry Greenemeier reports in the Scientific American that the possibility of computer graphic software allowing doctors to develop virtual models of patients could be a reality within the next five years.

Patients lose valuables at Denver hospital system

Deborah Sherman of KUSA-Denver investigated the high rate of patients' lost valuables and personal items in the Denver Health Medical System. According to the Denver Health Lost Property Reports, the system lost 368 items in 2006, much more than hospitals of similar size.

Drug-testing system lax on college athletes

Michael C. Lewis and Nate Carlisle of the Salt Lake Tribune requested information from 119 colleges and universities that sponsor football and compete in Division I-A and found great inconsistencies in their drug-testing programs.

New Web sites let scientists show their work on video

An article by Alicia Chang of The Associated Press shows that some scientists are embracing online video as a new way to relay research, lectures and experiment procedures.

One in 8 N.Y. foster children get psychiatric drugs

A two-day series by Gary Craig of the Rochester, N.Y. Democrat & Chronicle explores the trend of foster children being prescribed more psychiatric drugs. The investigation included analyzing data from county, state and federal agencies; interviewing experts locally and nationwide; interviewing families of some local foster children on medications; and reviewing public records of Monroe County Family Court cases in which the prescription of the drugs has been an issue.

Powerlifter just one of many with autism entering adulthood

The Chicago Tribune's Rex W. Huppke writes the story of Jamie Smith, a 24-year-old Chicago man with autism and his experiences traveling to Shanghai for the 2007 World Special Olympic Games. To report the story, Huppke and Tribune photographer Nancy Stone followed Smith and his family over nine months at his two jobs, home, training sessions, the state Special Olympic Games in Normal, Ill., and the World Games in China.

Mass. hospital death rate higher than national average

Liz Kowalczyk of the Boston Globe writes about a data analysis done by the Institute for Health Care Improvement that shows that Massachusetts' overall death rate is 7 percent higher than the national average.

Cardiologist loses license, claims violation of constitutional rights

Tim Christie of the Eugene, Ore. Register-Guard writes about a cardiologist whose medical license was revoked for refusing to participate in a 12-step program for alcohol abuse, saying it was a religious program and violated his constitutional rights. The stories shed light on a regulatory process that usually occurs out of public view; examine the constitutional issues of 12-step treatment programs; and chronicle a doctor's decision to quit his lucrative clinical medical career rather than submit to the board's authority. 

WHO punishes New York Times for breaking embargo

Slate's Jack Shafer and The Scientist's Ivan Oransky write about the punishment The New York Times received from the World Health Organization last week after breaking an embargo on a story about measles.

Foster children given high rate of psychiatric drugs

A three-part series by Brent Walth and Michelle Cole of The Oregonian investigates the high use of psychiatric drugs in foster children. The article reports that more than one in four Oregon children in foster care are being given powerful psychiatric drugs developed to treat depression, anxiety, trauma and other mental health issues.

CMS blocks use of cancer treatment

A column in Newsweek by Jonathan Alter describes a treatment for certain types of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the sixth-most frequently occurring cancer in the United States, and why it won't be available for patients at most hospitals.

Experts: U.S. hospital system financially unprepared for pandemic

Jason Matheny, Eric Toner and Richard Waldhorn, experts with the U.S. Center for Biosecurity, write in the Journal of Health Care Finance explaining what would happen financially to the U.S. hospital system if a pandemic were to occur.

Nursing homes use antipsychotic drugs to restrain Alzheimer's patients

Lucette Lagnado of The Wall Street Journal writes about the increased use of antipsychotic drugs to restrain Alzheimer's patients in U.S. nursing homes. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, nearly 21 percent of nursing-home patients who don't have a psychosis diagnosis are on antipsychotic drugs.

Three cancer patients, one seventh grade class

Seattle Times reporter Haley Edwards tells the story of three 12-year-old girls in the same seventh grade class at the Seattle Girls' School who are dealing with cancer. Two of them were diagnosed last year, while the third is a survivor, having battled a tumor at age four.

Movie addresses anesthetic awareness

USA Today reporter Robert Davis writes about "anesthetic awareness," or waking up during an operation, an experience that 30,000 people go through every year. A recently released movie called "Awake" addresses the problem, which happens in 0.1 to 0.2 percent of surgeries, but is traumatic for patients.

Death raises suspicions at school for the disabled

Chris Halsne of KIRO-Seattle follows up a report on abuse of residents at the Rainier School for the disabled that aired earlier this year. By looking at documents and talking to former employees, Halsne discovered undisclosed facts in a death declared "natural " in the medical examiner's report.

Conn. nursing home chain has pattern of violations

A series of stories by Lisa Chedekel, Lynne Tuohy and Christopher Keating of The Hartford Courant found evidence of consistent deficient care in one of Connecticut's most prominent nursing home chains.

Government lags in testing safety of household chemicals

Susanne Rust, Meg Kissinger and Cary Spivak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel describe how government regulators are overlooking chemicals found in common household items that interfere with the body's reproductive, developmental and behavioral systems.

PTSD and other mental illnesses plague war-torn Somalia

Paul Salopek of the Chicago Tribune writes about Habeb Public Mental Hospital, the only place for mental health treatment in the Somalian capital, Mogadishu.  "Doctors and aid workers see troubling signs that untold numbers of Somalis, brutalized by 16 years of chaos and tormented by the suicide bombings and assassinations of a growing Islamist insurgency, are fending off the jolts of violence the only way they can, by retreating inward, into the fog of mental illness."

Lasers for surgery less damaging on living tissue than previously thought

A 60-Second Science podcast by Chelsea Wald of Scientific America describes new meaningful research and what it means for laser surgery.

Army leader struggles to adapt to life at home

A series of stories by McClatchy Washington Correspondent Barbara Barrett depicts Army Sgt. 1st Class Chad Stephens and his mental struggles after returning from battle in Iraq.

Medicines for kids largely untested, despite incentives

Rob Stein of The Washington Post describes the concern federal regulators have about the lack of knowledge about the effects of medicine in children. According to the article, about two-thirds of the thousands of medicines given to children are untested on children, despite incentives given to pharmaceutical companies.

Patient safety program prepares students for real-life situations

A story by McClatchy's Howard Cohen describes a medical school program meant to reduce errors. Students at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital Center for Patient Safety work on mannequins in simulated real-life situations, and then watch videos of themselves to evaluate their performance and communication.

Deaths at U.S.-supported Afghan hospital concern experts

Alison Young of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that CDC scientists in Atlanta found an alarming increase in infant deaths last year at an Afghan hospital supported by a U.S. medical training program.

Pentagon tally of wounded troops excludes 20,000 with brain injuries

Gregg Zoroya of USA Today analyzed records and data from military bases and VA hospitals and found that "At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries."

Ky. scientists, Indian women linked by search for vaccine

The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal's medical writer Laura Ungar and photographer Kylene Lloyd spent three weeks among women suffering from cervical cancer in overcrowded Indian hospitals and in poor, rural villages. Every year in India, 120,000 women get cervical cancer and 80,000 die of it. But University of Louisville scientists are trying to find a low-cost vaccine.

Misplaced priorities in health news coverage

Gary Schwitzer, publisher of HealthNewsReview.org and director of the graduate program in health journalism at the University of Minnesota, writes that, in reporting on health care, "the majority of stories on new products, procedures, treatments and tests" are published without including information about cost, other options and possible risks and benefits. "Claims that would never be accepted unchallenged from a politician are accepted unquestioningly from physicians and researchers and company spokespersons."

The article appears in the online edition of The American Editor, published by the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

Dangerous, unproven 'energy medicine' devices in use nationwide

Michael Berens and Christine Willmsen of The Seattle Times report on "energy medicine" devices - unproven and often illegal, dangerous devices whose operators claim "the devices work by transmitting radio frequencies or electromagnetic waves through the body, identifying problems, then 'zapping' them."

Medics, combat ER in Iraq face physical, mental challenges to treat soldiers

A slideshow and reporter's notebook about Leslie Sabbagh's recent trip to Iraq, where she covered Medevac missions, Navy corpsmen and a hospital at Al Taqaddum in Al Anbar province, is online. Sabbagh's article about the Al Taqaddum hospital will appear in the December issue of Reader's Digest.

Donors get preference at UCLA's orthodontics program

Robert Faturechi of the Daily Bruin, the student newspaper at the University of California, Los Angeles, reports that UCLA's orthodontics residency program has been giving special preference to donors and their relatives.

Loophole allows E. coli-tainted meat to be sold

Stephen J. Hedges of the Chicago Tribune writes about a USDA loophole that allows meat on which E. coli has been found to be packaged and sold as "cook only" food. Some inspectors say this practice raises the level of the bacteria found in meat processing plants, and ties it to the rise in E. coli contamination found in other meat products.

Meat, dairy products transported in unsafe temperatures, overlooked by inspectors

Reporter Dave Savini of WBBM-Chicago found numerous instances of food transported in trucks with broken refrigeration systems or no refrigeration. Savini tipped off inspectors to the trucks they found in violation, but inspectors say that without the tip, the trucks would have gone to their destinations without intervention.

War veterans' suicide rate more than twice that of general population

An investigation by CBS News reporter Armen Keteyian found that war veterans in 45 states are more than twice as likely to commit suicide than nonveterans.

Workshop debates 'trustmarks' on health Web sites

A Health Improvement Institute workshop discussed seals of approval on health information Web sites and whether or not they should be trusted by consumers. A story from GovernmentExecutive.com reports that experts say consumers should be able to click on a trustmark symbol and be taken to a page that lists the requirements for earning that certification.

Doctors prescribe untested psychiatric drugs for children

Los Angeles Times writer Melissa Healy writes about a trend in which children are being diagnosed younger and younger with severe psychiatric disorders, and then prescribed medications that have only been tested on adults.

Army doctors pressured to diagnose pre-existing conditions

The Nation's Joshua Kors writes about an Army specialist who was wounded in Iraq and awarded a Purple Heart, but denied all disability and medical benefits because army doctors diagnosed him with personality disorder, a pre-existing illness. The specialist's symptoms include headaches and hearing loss likely caused by the 107-millimeter rocket that knocked him unconscious. His doctor denied there was any connection between the two.

Dental clinics strap children down, offer bonus for procedures

A special report by Roberta Baskin of WJLA-Washington, D.C. reveals dental clinics that treat children on Medicaid, but doesn't allow parents to accompany their children during treatments, and operates on a system of bonuses for employees who get children into the operating room for baby root canals and fillings on the same day of cleaning.

Doctors' move to Web attracts deals, advertisers

Sara Solovitch of the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports that "Doctors are moving to Web 2.0 in growing numbers, using tools like social networking platforms, blogs, wikis, podcasts, videos and specialized search engines." That trend has has sparked Web 2.0 deals aimed at doctors by companies such as Pfizer, Fliqz, HealthGrades and others.

Calif. caucus wants health care disparities addressed

Aurelio Rojas of The Sacramento Bee writes about a multiracial caucus that is showing resistance to Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's universal health plan, saying that discussion about the role race plays in health disparities has been absent from the conversation.

People in S.C. test high for mercury

A special section from the Charleston, S.C., Post and Courier features stories by reporters Tony Bartelme and Doug Pardue about the levels of mercury in the Charleston area.

Every second counts when girl's heart stops

Stephanie Earls of the Albany Times Union tells the story of a little girl who is kicked in the chest by a horse and collapses in cardiac arrest caused by the rare condition, commotio cordis, that occurs when the heart is struck at a precise moment between beats.

Chinese workers risk their lives in factories

The Salt Lake Tribune's Loretta Tofani traveled to China to investigate Chinese factories over a 12-month period. The result is a six-part special report detailing how Chinese workers routinely risk their health making products sent to the United States and other countries.

Failure to follow procedures leads to errors in Mass. hospitals

Liz Kowalczyk's story in The Boston Globe shows that between January 2005 and September 2007, Massachusetts hospitals recorded 74 surgical errors. Errors included performing the wrong procedure, operating on the wrong patient or leaving sponges, surgical instruments or either pieces of equipment inside the patient. Kowalczyk found that many are the result of hospitals not following procedures before and after surgeries.

Lifelike manikin helps nursing students prepare

Chris Day of The News Star in Monroe, La.,  describes a new manikin used by the University of Louisiana at Monroe nursing school to help students prepare for real-life patients.

Wichita organ transplant center may not meet new requirements

Karen Shideler of the Wichita Eagle reports that the area's organ transplant center, based at Via Christi Regional Medical Center, may not meet new federal requirements in at least two program areas. Records show that the patient survival rate for kidney transplants is lower than what Medicare expects and not enough heart transplants are being done to meet Medicare's new threshold.

Doctors investigate child abuse claims, find another cause of death

Tom Avril, of The Philadelphia Inquirer, tells the story of a family broken apart when their baby died, diagnosed with shaken-baby syndrome, and the father was accused of murder. Several doctors acted as medical detectives to find out what really happened to the child.

Mortality data and its use in quality improvement efforts

The September/October 2007 issue of Quality Matters, a newsletter from The Commonwealth Fund, focuses on mortality data and quality improvement. One article looks at how mortality data may be modified to be more useful as quality improvement tools and a case study examines the quality improvement efforts behind one hospital's ranking and what influence public reporting of hospital mortality rates is likely to have on patient outcomes.

Scientists say bacteria play a vital role in health

Jerry Adler and Jeneen Interlandi's article in Newsweek reveals what scientists say are the benefits of bacteria and microbes in human health. The Human Microbiome Project, a five-year multinational study featured in the article, was started to determine what and how much of a role bacteria play in human uniqueness.

Development of pandemic vaccine faces multiple obstacles

Maryn McKenna, writing for the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy, investigates the prospects for development of vaccines to head off the threat of an influenza pandemic posed by the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The series puts advances in vaccine technology in perspective by illuminating the formidable barriers to producing an effective and widely usable vaccine in a short time frame.

Families uninformed about serious, even fatal, accidents at mental health facility

Mary Zahn of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes about serious accidents at a Milwaukee area mental health institute that patients' families were never informed of. Two accidents led to death. The facility, Winnebago Mental Health Institute, was investigated by the Journal-Sentinel last month. The paper found that staff handled situations insufficiently, leading to three deaths and a rape.

Assisted-living residents pay high prices for over-the-counter meds

Jesse Jones of KING-Seattle found that residents of assisted-living facilities pay as much as five times more for over-the-counter drugs because pharmacists have to package them in individual doses. Jones compared one man's pharmacy bill with prices at other pharmacies, such as Walgreen's. He found that while the facility's pharmacy charges the man $137 for acetaminophen, Walgreen's price is just $37. Jones found similar differences for other drugs, such as Tums.

Prescription drug addiction controls lives, wrecks families

A series of articles by Larry Gierer and Brad Barnes of the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer explore different aspects of prescription drug addiction. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, about 48 million people in the United States - 20 percent of the population - have used prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons. Painkillers are most commonly abused.

Today's high school football players 11 pounds heavier on average

Garry Lenton of The (Harrisburg, Pa.) Patriot-News illustrates the significant increase in weight in professional, college, and high school football players since the 1980s. The News conducted a study using high school football rosters and calculated the BMI's for 800 players - half from 1988 and the rest from 2006.

The results showed that today's players were 11 pounds heavier on average; linemen were twice that. The percentage of players weighing 230 or more tripled, as did the percentage of players with a BMI of 30 .

Merck's abandoned HIV vaccine trial could have industry-wide effects

Karl Stark of The Philadelphia Inquirer writes about how the industry of vaccine development may be affected after Merck & Co. pulled its HIV vaccine trial because it didn't seem to be working. According to Merck's vice president for Medical Affairs for Vaccines & Infectious Diseases, roughly 90 percent of vaccine studies were using major elements of Merck's approach.

V.A. hospitals refuse to release cancer data to state researchers

Gina Kolata of The New York Times writes an article explaining that, for the first time, Veteran's Affairs Hospitals have stopped providing information about cancer patients. The VA has stopped participating in data collection because it says it is concerned about patient privacy. Researchers say this will severely impact the National Cancer Institute's national cancer statistics to be published next summer.

Doctor accused of negligence stays on the job

Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein of the the Los Angeles Times detail accusations against Kaiser Fresno perinatologist Hamid Safari, who has had complaints filed against him since his arrival at the hospital in 1997. Since April, he has been on permanent restriction by Kaiser Permanente, barred from performing vaginal deliveries and required to be monitored by another physician or an advanced-practice nurse. Kaiser and other hospitals typically do not notify patients of such actions.

Reporting of SIDS varies widely among counties

Thomas Hargrove and Lee Bowman of the Scripps Howard News Service write a story based on the analysis of 40,000 infant death records. The data reveals that the reporting of cause of death as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome varies widely from county to county in the United States, influenced more by bias for or against the syndrome by professionals than medical evidence.

Organization cares for disabled adults after parents cannot

John Barry of the St. Petersburg Times spent a year with families with adult disabled children to write this story about an organization that protects disabled children's rights, inheritances, medical needs, and daily care giving. The organization, called Advocare Trust, is run by Sue Schramek and was invented in 1988 by parents of developmentally disabled individuals who were concerned about what would happen to their children when they became too old to take of them or died.

Seattle researcher's work led to developing the HPV vaccine

In Pacific Northwest, the Seattle Times' Sunday magazine, Paula Bock profiles Laura Koutsky, one of the developers of the world's first human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Koutsky, who grew up in Seattle, conducted a study in the 1980s on 12,000 women worldwide. The study laid the groundwork for the development of the vaccine in little more than two decades.

Nursing homes focus on profit, not patients

Charles Duhigg writes about the results of a New York Times analysis of government agency data between 2000 and 2006. The analysis found that managers at nursing homes acquired by large private investors have cut expenses and staff, sometimes below minimum legal requirements.

The typical nursing home acquired by a large investment company before 2006 scored worse than national rates in tracked ailments of long-term residents. Those ailments include bedsores and easily preventable infections, as well as the need to be restrained. Before they were acquired by private investors, many of those homes scored at or above national averages in similar measurements.

Accidents on the rise in labs handling deadly germs

According to an article by Larry Margasak of The Associated Press, American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing. While no one died from these accidents, and officials claim the public has never been at risk, it shows poor procedural practices and management. According to the AP, some labs have failed to report accidents as required by law. Some of the labs deal with organisms and poisons that bring on illnesses that have no cure.

DNA testing detects future cancer risk, but presents difficult choice

Amy Harmon of The New York Times followed 33-year-old Deborah Lindner as she made the difficult decision to have a mastectomy before developing breast cancer, a procedure that would reduce her risk by 90 percent.

Heavy T, 15, is on the run from social workers

Joe Eaton's story in the Washington City Paper describes "Heavy T," or Terrell Hunter, 15, who is on the run from the Child and Family Services Agency.

Hunter, who at age 13 was 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighed 341 pounds, was admitted into the Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents after a severe asthma attack sent him into heart failure. On a rigorous weight-loss program, he was released weighing 137 pounds. Once back home, however, Hunter went back to former habits and put the weight back on. He guesses he now weighs about 190 pounds. His mother, who was found using drugs, lost custody in March 2007 for not looking after his medical needs.

Videoconferencing makes care more accessible for veterans

An article by John Moore in Government Health IT says the Veterans Affairs Department's Midwest Health Care Network recently deployed a $2 million videoconferencing network that aims to make health care more accessible.

The network covers a region that stretches from western Wisconsin and Illinois to eastern Wyoming. Clinics operate in numerous locales, but visiting a specialist could involve driving to a medical center in a distant urban area.

Saving Nadia: One little girl's fight for life

In The Philadelphia Inquirer, Josh Goldstein tells the story of 17-month old Nadia Kadi and her family as she undergoes a liver transplant at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Goldstein also tells the parallel story of Nadia's doctor, Elizabeth Rand, who discovers she has breast cancer and receives a mastectomy just after performing Nadia's transplant.

Broken system forces law enforcement to handle mentally ill

The two final parts of Kelly Weiss' series investigating Missouri's mental health system aired on Kansas City's NPR affiliate KCUR. The fourth story looks into a city jail and the streets where the mentally ill and homeless live. The fifth one looks at the future.

Wis. official: HIPAA rules don't apply to ambulance dispatch records

Darryl Enriquez of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes about a decision made by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen that says fire departments in Wisconsin cannot use the federal HIPAA law's privacy rules as a reason to withhold basic public information about ambulance calls, such as names and addresses of those who required medical help.

Multimedia feature tells Little People's stories

A special section in the Delaware News Journal details the lives of Little People through stories, video, photo galleries, slideshows with audio and interactive graphics. Health reporter Kelly Bothum and photographer Suchat Pederson toured the country, meeting Little People who have visited the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware, which houses one of the world's foremost centers in the treatment of skeletal dysplasia, the medical term for the bone and cartilage abnormalities that cause dwarfism.

Employers take advantage of foreign doctors in federal visa program

Marshall Allen of the Las Vegas Sun uncovers flaws in a federal program designed to bring foreign doctors to the United States on J-1 visas. The program requires that these doctors work as primary care providers in clinics in underserved urban and rural areas for a minimum of three years, 40 hours per week. After completing this service, they are allowed to become permanent U.S. residents and work on their own.

Instead, Allen found that doctors were being pulled away from the clinics they were supposed to be working in, sometimes appearing there only once a week, and putting in more hours in hospitals in affluent areas, where they generate more revenue for their employers. Allen also found that the doctors were made to sign contracts that cut their pay. Under the program, the doctors are to be paid a salary decided on by the federal government that represents the salary of a similar American physician.

New legislation to place stricter requirements on FDA

Associated Press reporter Andrew Bridges writes about legislation awaiting the president's signature that renews funding for and imposes stricter guidelines on the Food and Drug Administration. The bill gives the FDA more powers in policing drug safety. The FDA's focus has traditionally been on approving new drugs, but has received criticism after the withdrawal of the painkiller Vioxx from the market.

Nieman adviser suggests focusing on Canada when covering single-payer health care systems

In a Nieman Watchdog commentary, senior adviser Morton Mintz suggests that the American media could more effectively report on single-payer health care by referencing Canada's system more often. Mintz argues that single-payer systems get are reported in a negative light in many cases, and by referencing Europe, reporters invoke a feeling of distance and detachment in the American public.

Hospitals vary greatly in providing antibiotics before surgery, analysis finds

A study by the Consumers Union found great differences among hospitals in Maryland and Virginia in terms of dispensing antibiotics before surgical procedures to prevent infection. The hospital with the best rate in Virginia gave drugs prior to surgery 97 percent of the time, while the worst rate was 24 percent - a 73 percent difference.

Medical care poses challenges for disabled, elderly

In a segment of Your Health on Morning Edition, NPR's Joseph Shapiro discusses how common medical procedures can be daunting for wheelchair-bound patients - starting with getting on the examination table.

Woman's death raises questions about experimental gene therapy

Carla K. Johnson and Lindsey Tanner of The Associated Press tell the story of a 36-year-old woman who died shortly after voluntarily undergoing experimental gene therapy. Jolee Mohr, who had lived with rheumatoid arthritis for 14 years, thought the therapeutic treatment might relieve the chronic pain in her right knee. The next day, she fell sick, vomiting and running a fever. She died three weeks later at the University of Chicago Medical Center.