Top of the Morning: Ivan Oransky Edition

September 14, 2016
Here we check in with prominent health journalists and experts to see what sites, newsletters and social media feeds they turn to first every morning. This week, we caught up with Ivan Oransky, vice president and global editorial director of MedPage Today. Here are his top morning reads:
 
A few of my regular morning reads - MedPage Today's Morning Break, and STAT's Morning Rounds - have been mentioned by others (and are also at places where I work), so I'll focus on another category: Niche sources. I have always found the best stories when I dig deep into a particular subject or beat.
 
I've been reading digests of ProMED-mail's alerts, which combine news reports from around the world with expert commentary, for years. There's no better way to keep up with what's happening in the world of infectious diseases.
 
Similarly, I have a number of keyword alerts set up at PubMed, the National Library of Medicine's massive database of journal abstracts. I find all sorts of stories and connections hidden in plain sight.
 
Every Friday, David Allison and colleagues send out the Obesity and Energetics Offerings newsletter, curating news and analysis about diet and nutrition. One of my favorite sections: "Headline vs. Study." It's quite remarkable how different the two can be.
 
Speaking of perplexing news coverage of medical studies, Health News Review's weekly digest is a must-read.
 
I'm also a fan of Twitter's text message function, which allows me to get an alert whenever particular people tweet. I pick those with a very high signal-to-noise ratio.
 
If you want to see what kinds of items about scientific fraud and scholarly publishing the Retraction Watch staff is finding, subscribe toThe Retraction Watch Daily.