Insights

<p>Some months ago, the receptionist in my clinic handed me a registered letter. The name of the sender seemed familiar. "Dear Sir," the letter read. "Please be advised that this letter serves as official notice that I am considering a potential claim against you in a medical Malpractice claim in regard to my husband. . . ." I stood, stunned. My white coat, which held the daily tools of my profession — my list of patients, the Sanford antibiotic manual, a black stethoscope — felt extraordinarily heavy.</p>

<p>Here's what we're reading and listening to today:</p> <p><strong>Nutrition:</strong> <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/29/2985813/dine-out-nutrition-facts-in-yo… don’t need no stinkin’ nutrition facts</a>. Just let me eat my 845-calorie taco salad in peace, okay?</p>

<p><em>Antidote</em> wrote last week about an odd rule set by the <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?gl=us&amp;hl=en&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;msa=0&am…; State Board of Medical Examiners that allows a doctor accused of “inappropriate conduct” with female patients to continue seeing patients with a chaperone, unless they are 60 or older. At that age, the board considers the patients risk-free and allows the doctor to see them alone.</p>

<p>As always, you can find job, internship, awards and fellowship opportunities <a href="#jobs">at the end of this post</a>.</p>

<p>Now that you have established your target, walk up to the door and knock.</p> <p>This is the step that even some veteran investigative reporters like to avoid until the very end. How can you let a subject know that you are investigating them? Won’t they start shredding records, threatening potential whistleblowers, putting cameras in the parking lot to capture you talking to patients?</p> <p>They may do all those things. But here are three good reasons to talk to your subjects early.</p>

<p><img src="http://media.scpr.org/images/bio/2010/02/26/small.jpg&quot; alt="Julie Small/SCPR" width="100" height="128" style="float: left; margin: 10px;" /></p> <p><strong>Prison Health Care: Live Conversation with Julie Small</strong><br /><strong>Thursday, August 26</strong></p>

<p>Here's what we're reading and listening to today:</p> <p><strong>Prison Health:</strong> In our <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/reporting-prison-health-care-live-chat-kpccs-julie-small">online chat TODAY at 11 a.m. PST</a>., get tips on covering prison health from KPCC’s Julie Small, whose <a href="http://www.scpr.org/specials/prisonmedical/"&gt;“Prison Affliction” investigation</a> has been airing this week.</p>

<p><!--[endif]--></p> <p>Here's what we're reading and listening to today:</p> <p><strong>Prison Health:</strong> KPCC‘s Julie Small talks <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/qa-kpccs-julie-small-investigating-prison-health-care">about how she reported her “Prison Affliction”</a> series airing this week. Please join us for ReportingonHealth’s <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/reporting-prison-health-care-live-chat-kpccs-julie-small">online chat with Julie</a> Thursday at 11 a.m. PST.</p>

<p><span>Years ago, while working on a street&nbsp;outreach program feeding the&nbsp;homeless, I observed that virtually every one of our clients was a smoker. (In fact, researchers now&nbsp;estimate that about 94% of the North American homeless population&nbsp;smoke).