Kristin covers health care for Rhode Island Public Radio, Rhode Island's NPR station. Before joining RIPR, Kristin covered the environment and science for Louisville Public Media in Kentucky. And prior to that she was a reporter and host for Wyoming Public Radio. Kristin received her MS in journalism from Columbia University and her BA in anthropology from Lewis & Clark College. She's also taught undergraduate journalism and broadcast skills. For RIPR, Kristin covers all aspects of health care, from the burden of disease and health care disparities, to efforts to reform payment and delivery. She's won numerous national, regional, and local awards, most recently a regional Edward R. Murrow award for her year-long series "Future Docs," examining medical education in a changing health care landscape.

Articles

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) chairs the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. At a hearing Wednesday, Dec. 3, Sanders wanted to know why new hepatitis C drugs cost so much and how the VA was going to pay for them. Credit Screenshot of live stream of hearing

At The Crossroads, Part 6: Veterans harder hit by hep C

Hep C is three times more prevalent among veterans than in the general population. The Veterans Health Administration's hepatitis C screening and treatment program is struggling to pay for new treatments – and the rising number of veterans who need them.

Note: This estimate includes people not typically counted by national health surveys. The CDC estimates about 3 million Americans are infected but doesn't include people who are incarcerated, on active military duty, or in nursing homes. Credit Jake Harper / RIPR

At The Crossroads, Part 1: A tale of two epidemics

Hepatitis C infects an estimated 5 million Americans, although most of them don’t know it. But deaths from hepatitis C are on the rise in baby boomers. And throughout New England, new infections are creeping up among a younger generation.

At The Crossroads, Part 2: Finding hep C infections before it's too late

How do you stop an epidemic? Keep the people who are sick from infecting more people. Isolate them if you have to, treat them, and cure them. But what if you don’t know who’s sick? What if the person who’s still infectious doesn’t know it either, and won’t notice any symptoms for decades?

Medicaid programs grappling with cost of new hep C drugs

Like a growing number of Medicaid programs around the country, Rhode Island’s Medicaid program has quietly posted its first guidelines for coverage of an expensive new drug for hepatitis C. The new drug, called Sovaldi, is a big deal, whether you have hepatitis C or not.

On World Hepatitis Day, an invitation

Baby boomers are five times as likely to have chronic hepatitis C as any other age group. That's why the CDC launched a public health campaign to encourage boomers to get screened for the disease. And so, in honor of World Hepatitis Day, I invite — no, I encourage — boomers to get tested.

Neglect can harm young brains as much as abuse

For babies, healthy brain development is like a tennis game. A caregiver "serves" up an interaction, like a facial expression, a coo, or a word, and the infant "returns" that serve, imitating the expression or sound. That "serve and return" dynamic is key.