Insights

You learn a lot when you spend months reporting on a given issue or community, as our fellows can attest. Whether you’re embarking on a big new story or seeking to go deeper on a given issue, it pays to learn from those who’ve already put in the shoe leather and crunched the data. In these essays and columns, our community of journalists steps back from the notebooks and tape to reflect on key lessons, highlight urgent themes, and offer sage advice on the essential health stories of the day. 

Healthy Neighborhoods

By Andrew Doughman

One of the public health trends these days appears to be a focus on the built environment. Here's how I reported on the connection between improving where people live and bettering their health.

Florida Legislation

Self surgery clinics to open

By James Salwitz

The medical equivalents of U-Haul, Home Depot and rental rug shampooers, self service operating rooms have been the subject of debate and excitement.

African Health Dialogues

Combating TB in Africa: The Case of South Africa

By Wale Idris Ajibade

According to the World Health Organization, tuberculosis is second only to HIV/AIDS as the greatest killer worldwide due to a single infectious agent. In 2011 alone, an estimated 8.7 million new cases of TB occurred, leading to 1.4 million deaths.

Immigration Reform: Will It Help or Hurt Medicare?

By Kimber Solana

As Congress grapples with immigration reform, questions are arising about the impact new Americans and legal residents could have on U.S. social programs, among them the health care system.

Need a Lift? An Overview

By Yvonne LaRose

Since the auto is becoming a luxury item in terms of cost and fuel, and because environmentally speaking, using a personal auto is becoming a less desirable option, it's important for Southern California urban planners to come up with transportation options.

When Data to Support Claims Are Scant

By Erica Peterson

To document Rubbertown, Ky., residents’ claims of unusually high rates of disease, I needed hard data. Originally, I had planned a health survey of the areas around the industrial plants. When that proved impractical, I enlisted a state health monitoring agency.

Revisiting Michigan's most devastating environmental disaster

By Valerie Lego

In 1973, nearly every Michigan resident was exposed to a toxic chemical. As I brought this story out of the shadows and examined the lasting health effects, I had an advantage: the story was heavily archived and documented.

Lessons from the Field: covering redevelopment projects as health projects

By Andrew Doughman

Several years ago, a young man was gunned down and stripped of his belongings -- the shooters even wrenched his dental gold out of his mouth -- in a public housing complex across the street from an elementary school in a poor neighborhood in Spartanburg, South Carolina. ...