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. 

Author(s)
By Kari Lydersen

<p>The Clean Trucks program and other innovations at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach have significantly reduced the diesel emissions around the ports, meaning important public health ramifications for the surrounding communities who are at higher risk of respiratory disease, cardiac disease and&nbsp; cancer because of the particulate matter and smog caused by diesel emissions.</p>

Author(s)
By Lauren Gerstmann

<p>If you've seen Jamie Oliver's <em>Food Revolution</em> on ABC, you might be interested in some recent studies about group and individual interventions for people who are overweight or at risk for diabetes.</p>

Author(s)
By Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Fight the Bite:</strong> California reports its <a href="http://www.westnile.ca.gov/">first human West Nile virus cases of the season</a>, in what appears to be a late start to a mild West Nile season nationally. What’s happening in your community? For some resources and ideas for your coverage, check out this <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/blogs/summer-schools-session-covering-… Wonk post</a>.</p>

Author(s)
By Angilee Shah

<p><a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/users/destrin">Deborah Estrin</a> is a computer science professor interested in the low-tech. To her, everyday technology -- as opposed to supercomputers and expensive gadgets -- are brilliant tools for data collection. The world's 5 billion cell phones -- and the cameras and GPS that are increasingly common components -- represent tremendous opportunities. Using "smart" mobile phones, researchers, community groups and journalists can design ways to capture information about people whose stories and health status are otherwise hard to capture.</p>

Author(s)
By Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gantry_crane">gantry cranes</a> at the Ports of <a href="http://www.portoflosangeles.org/">Los Angeles </a>and <a href="http://www.polb.com/">Long Beach</a> tower high above acres of stacked shipping containers – Hanjin, Matson, China Shipping – lined up along the harbor. These ports process 40 percent of container goods that arrive by ship in the United States; they directly or indirectly employ more than 120,000 people and generate billions of dollars in tax revenue each year.</p>

Author(s)
By Angilee Shah

<p>It's all hospitals and doctors in today's <em>Daily Briefing</em>:<br />

Author(s)
By Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>Investigative journalist-turned-GIS expert <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/ann-moss-joyner/4/817/415">Ann Moss Joyner</a> has made some pretty persuasive maps in her time. There was the <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/ReportingonHealthorg/90860628845#!/photo…; showing how an Ohio community’s water plant just couldn’t seem to serve a historically black neighborhood just hundreds of feet away, even as the plant’s water lines snaked miles to other, white neighborhoods.