Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>This week, I'm going to focus on the best bloggers, tweeters and online aggregators to help you stay abreast of developments in this year's biggest health stories: H1N1/swine flu and health reform. </p><p>Today's post highlights H1N1/swine flu, with more on health reform Thursday. This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive list and I welcome your comments on any resources particularly useful to journalists that I may have missed. You can also check out ReportingonHealth's general resources for covering H1N1/swine flu <a href="/resources/lessons/swine-flu-useful-resources">here</a>.</p>

<p>An intriguing New York Times blog <a href="http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/the-fries-that-bind-us/?sr…; today highlights a geo-coded map created by <a href="http://www.weathersealed.com/">blogger</a&gt; Stephen Worley showing that the farthest away any American in the contiguous 48 states can get from a McDonalds is a mere 107 miles — a mere two-hour drive from a <a href="http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/nutrition_facts.html#0… Big Mac</a>.</p>

<p>The thought-provoking group blog on public health, <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/">Effect Measure</a>, has a worthwhile <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/09/good_flu_reporters_arent_…; today on science and health reporters who burrowed deep into a National Institutes of Health press release on H1N1/swine flu vaccine to get the not-so-good news as well as the good. </p>

<p>We have a guest blogger today: <a href="/users/dlee">Dan Lee</a>, former Riverside Press-Enterprise reporter and current student at the Annenberg School for Communication, is working for the California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships and ReportingonHealth.</p><hr /><p>By Daniel Lee</p><p>Reporters covering the health care reform debate have failed to adequately investigate the claims made by both Democratic and Republican leaders and could do more to focus on its local impacts, experts said Wednesday.</p>

<p>Hospital seismic safety, redux:</p> <p>I know you're all busy reporting on swine flu and health reform, but California reporters should take a a new look at hospital seismic safety. This is a never-ending, sometimes boring, but really important health policy issue in California.</p>

<p>I've been meaning to write about a great Aug. 9 Denver Post article I read while on a trip to that city. </p>

<p>Reporter Karen Augé <a href="http://www.denverpost.com/firstinthepost/ci_13023972">examined</a&gt; the controversial health policy issues surrounding doctor-owned hospitals in the wake of a death of a young woman at <a href="http://www.mycosh.com/">Colorado Orthopaedic and Surgical Hospital</a>. </p>

<p>Here's how she opens the story: </p>

<p>How are California's community health clinics faring amid the state's most brutal health budget cuts in decades? That's one topic that's seen little coverage recently as journalists focus on national health reform. </p>

<p><a href="/users/shimmel">Sheila Himmel</a>, an award-winning food writer and restaurant reviewer for the San Jose Mercury News, loved to eat. Then her daughter became anorexic, forever changing Himmel's relationship with food and her identity as a journalist. In <a href="http://sheilahimmel.com/book.shtml">Hungry: A Mother and Daughter Fight Anorexia</a>, Himmel and her daughter Lisa examine how their family coped with Lisa's serious eating disorder.</p>

<p>The always provocative <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/">New Scientist</a> magazine has a fascinating, if unscientific, <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327213.200-swine-flu-how-expert…; asking epidemiologists and other public health officials what they're personally doing to prepare themselves and their families for swine flu. (Hat tip to the always-useful <a href="http://ksjtracker.mit.edu/">Knight Science Journalism Tracker</a>, which is a must-read for health and science journalists.)</p>