|  Check out AHCJ’s latest volume in its ongoing Slim Guide series. The latest guide walks reporters through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site and highlights data resources. It is a starting place for finding national or state data and surveys when writing health stories. A Fast Stats section lists, by category, direct links to pages about specific diseases, conditions or datasets for reporters on deadline. For those who want to learn more, there are also step-by-step instructions with examples, story ideas and tips from successfully published stories that used CDC statistics. AHCJ publishes these reporting guides, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to help journalists understand and accurately report on specific subjects. | | |  AHCJ President Trudy Lieberman outlines 12 questions about health care that should be posed during the presidential candidate's debate. Her questions deal with controlling costs, achieving universal health care without mandates, safeguards for policy holders and much more. They also provide a guide for anyone writing about health reform and the candidates' proposals. Several analyses have recently been published examining the details of the Obama and McCain health plans. They include two separate Health Affairs studies, a report by the Tax Policy Center; and a column by Lieberman, who urges reporters to write about how the presidential candidates' health care plans will affect ordinary people. She says that, unless we tell audiences just what they can expect from either candidate, they might really become disengaged.
| | This free innovative simulation, "On the Beat: Covering Hospitals," guides you through the sources and resources you need to tackle the beat. You'll tap into the same tools that you'll use on the job, and you'll have a virtual mentor to walk you through the maze of reports, statistics and sources. Two story lines will teach you about reporting on hospital quality and how to report on hospital finances. Start today to hone your critical-thinking skills and gain the beat-specific knowledge needed to cover the hospitals in your community.
This online training module combines the reporting expertise of AHCJ with NewsU’s innovative e-learning experience and is made possible through a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. AHCJ has launched an interactive e-class as the online companion to the book “Covering Health in a Multicultural Society: A Resource Guide for Journalists.” Enroll in the class to take part in discussion forums and take short quizzes to test your knowledge. Complete the e-class, and get a certificate of completion. The course is a resource for understanding the increasing diversity of the audiences AHCJ members serve. | Health Journalism 2009, the annual conference of AHCJ, has been set for next spring in Seattle. The conference will be April 16-19 at the Grand Hyatt Seattle. The terrific downtown location promises quick access to all the Emerald City has to offer. Bookmark the conference page and learn about the conference hotel. |  Sessions focused on what reporters should know about rural populations, diabetes in susceptible communities, how Medicare plans affect rural health, resources for visualizing rural health, addressing health workforce hurdles, services for an aging population, immigration's challenge to rural health, oral and visual health in rural America, mental health and substance abuse, and a bonus hands-on training session in computer-assisted reporting. Many of the speakers' presentations and tip sheets, as well as audio of two panels, are posted online.
| Health Journalism 2008  • Conference highlights, tip sheets and webcasts
• Nearly 600 attendees gathered for conference • Conference home page Many thanks to all of our conference speakers and participants for making this such a great conference! Conference highlights included a newsmaker briefing with actor Dennis Quaid about the medical error that threatened the lives of his twins, a roundtable with several of AHCJ's founding members, a newsmaker briefing with HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt about new hospital quality data, and the keynote speech from Elizabeth Edwards, in which she was quite candid in her critique of John McCain's health care plan. | |
Hot Health Headlines
GAO: Review of initiatives
to prevent infections
The Government Accountability Office looks at 23 states that had established mandatory public reporting systems for health-care-associated infections through February 2008. The report looks at other initiatives to track health-care-associated infects, including states that collect information on hospital-associated MRSA infections, states that have adopted the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Networ and hospitals that have adopted initiatives to reduce MRSA by routinely testing some or all patients and isolating those who test positive for MRSA from contact with other patients.
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See the 
Covering Health in a Multicultural Society
Health Journalism 2009 set for Seattle