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<p><a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/secondarypage-details.php?id=377">Felice Freyer</a>, veteran medical writer at the Providence Journal and <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/">Association of Health Care Journalists</a> board member, is surveying reporters about how state and local agencies are releasing, or refusing to release, basic demographic information (not names) about people who have died from H1N1/swine flu. </p>
<p>The change in U.S. mammogram screening guidelines is certainly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/health/17cancer.html?em">big news</a>, and it's not a one-day story. The obvious conflict is the disagreement between some major medical organizations and the <a href="http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstfab.htm" title="Group’s Web site.">United States Preventive Services Task Force</a>, which is now recommending that women get their first mammogram at age 50, rather than 40 as previously recommended. </p>
<p>After a lively and wide-ranging discussion at our Health in the Blogosphere <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/Events/2009/091109CAEndowmentHealthJournalism…; Monday, some attendees have posted insightful wrap-ups on their blogs. I'll also be posting these on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/search?q=%23uscblogcon">#uscblogcon</a>.</p><p>Here's a sampling of their thoughts: </p>
<p>If you're trying to stay on top of the health reform debate and don't have time to scroll through thousands of Google News hits, here's a handy guide to some leading blogs that do it for you and offer great analysis to boot.</p>
<p>The <a href="/">California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships</a> wrapped up a thought-provoking and fruitful <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/Events/2009/091109CAEndowmentHealthJournalism… session</a> on the health blogosphere today, with an often- hilarious, back-channel Twitter conversation <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23uscblogcon">here</a>.
<p>Each month, the San Francisco public radio station KQED airs an hour-long program called <a href="http://www.californiareport.org/healthdialogues/index.jsp">Health Dialogues</a> that delves deeply into such topics as food safety, asthma, swine flu and environmental health.
<p>On Monday, I listened in on a telephone press briefing on the impact of national health reform on Californians. The briefing, sponsored by the California advocacy group Health Access, highlighted new research from the <a href="http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu">UCLA Center for Health Policy Research</a>, the <a href="http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/">UC-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education</a> and the labor-backed advocacy group <a href="http://healthcareforamericanow.org/">Health Care For America Now</a> (HCAN). </p>
<p>Here's a (belated) wrap-up of the <a href="http://www.health2con.com/">Health 2.0 conference</a> in San Francisco earlier this month, and some fodder for future stories.</p>
<p>National Health Journalism Fellows today toured <a href="http://www.blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?blog_id=63859&cid=53">…; and came away with a more nuanced understanding of the health and socioeconomic issues facing this economically stressed but still hopeful Los Angeles community. At the <a href="http://www.wlcac.org/">Watts Labor Community Action Committee</a> Center in the heart of Watts, Fellows learned about health disparities and HIV/AIDS among blacks from public health officials, policy experts, community leaders and journalists.
<p>Using <a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a> to tell stories can be a tricky business at first, but it gets easier with practice and is a great tool for journalists covering everything from fires to public health.</p><p>That was the message from three Los Angeles Times online journalist/techies: database producer Ben Welsh, Flash producer Sean Connelley, and editorial artist Thomas Suh Lauder at a Wednesday panel for the <a href="/fellowships/seminars/national-health-journalism">National Health Journalism Fellowships</a>.</p>