Insights

<p>A colleague of mine, Dave Wasson, came back from a reporting conference once and passed on a bit of wisdom he had picked up: "If you ever hear someone say that something is a win-win, you know that someone is losing big time." </p>

<p>I have made that phrase a maxim that has never steered me wrong.</p>

<p>Perhaps more than anyone who has ever written about ghostwriting in medical literature, Kim Klausner knows where the bodies are buried. Klausner is the Industry Documents Digital Libraries Manager for the University of California-San Francisco, which means she is in charge of the <a href="http://dida.library.ucsf.edu/">Drug Industry Documents Archive</a>, a collection of thousands of documents that detail how the drug industry has used continuing medical education and medical literature to help market its products. </p>

<p><a href="http://bit.ly/18cLuK">Dr. Cleveland Enmon</a>, the Stockton physician accused of stealing a retired police officer's watch as the officer was dying, may have learned by example.</p> <p>Enmon went through his residency at the most infamous hospital on the West Coast: <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-kingdrewpulitzer-sg,1… Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center</a> in Los Angeles. While there, he worked in the emergency room alongside Dr. Ahmed Rashed.</p>

<p>Before describing a few stories that have not received much play in the media, I'd like to mention a few publications by my Urban Institute colleagues that provide useful state and local information. One report shows, <a href="http://www.urban.org/health_policy/url.cfm?ID=411967">by Congressional district, the proportion of residents with various types of health coverage</a> (uninsured, privately insured, or covered by Medicaid or other public programs).

<p><em>Ambitious stories will tackle critical community health issues such as industrial contamination, the environmental factors that contribute to obesity, and the underlying causes of health disparities in urban environments.</em></p>

<p>Antidote promised in an earlier post to revisit the case of Dr. John Eden, who <a href="http://bit.ly/MF7AL">told Antidote</a> he regretted working with a ghostwriter who had been paid by Wyeth to write an article about hormone replacement therapy (HRT).</p>

<p>Terrifying headlines loomed last week about pregnancy and antidepressants. Did you see them?</p><p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20090926/hl_hsn/antidepressantslinkedtohear… Linked to Heart Defects in Newborns - Yahoo! Health</a></p><p><a href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165698.php">Taking Antidepressants in Early Pregnancy Linked to Child Heart Defects - Medical News Today</a></p>

<p><a href="http://policymed.typepad.com/about.html">Thomas Sullivan</a> writes the <a href="http://www.policymed.com/">Policy and Medicine</a> blog. He also runs <a href="http://www.rockpointe.com/">Rockpointe Corporation</a>, a medical education company that works with nonprofits and for-profits to create continuing medical education (CME) programs. As company-sponsored CME and ghostwriting by companies has come under fire, Sullivan has become an outspoken advocate for medical education firms.</p>

<p>National Health Journalism Fellows today toured <a href="http://www.blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?blog_id=63859&amp;cid=53">…; and came away with a more nuanced understanding of the health and socioeconomic issues facing this economically stressed but still hopeful Los Angeles community. At the <a href="http://www.wlcac.org/">Watts Labor Community Action Committee</a> Center in the heart of Watts, Fellows learned about health disparities and HIV/AIDS among blacks from public health officials, policy experts, community leaders and journalists.

<p>Using <a href="http://maps.google.com/">Google Maps</a> to tell stories can be a tricky business at first, but it gets easier with practice and is a great tool for journalists covering everything from fires to public health.</p><p>That was the message from three Los Angeles Times online journalist/techies: database producer Ben Welsh, Flash producer Sean Connelley, and editorial artist Thomas Suh Lauder at a Wednesday panel for the <a href="/fellowships/seminars/national-health-journalism">National Health Journalism Fellowships</a>.</p>