Insights

<p>From the <a href="/blogs/health-not-just-health-care-says-fellowship-seminars-keynote-speaker">opening keynote</a> of this week's National Health Journalism Fellowship seminar, prevention and health beyond just health care have been common themes. Today's afternoon panelists gave examples of programs that take simple, novel approaches to integrating physical activity into people's daily lives.</p><p><b>Take a Walk</b></p>

<p>Stan Dorn, senior research associate at the Urban Institute, says that in the game of health care reform legislation, "We are in the playoffs."</p><p>The players are largely Democrats and the few Republicans who are not opposing reforms outright. Here is a roundup of the agreements and debates in Washington, D.C., as well as a few story ideas, which Dorn outlined in this morning's seminar with the <a href="/fellowships/seminars/national-health-journalism">National Health Journalism Fellows</a>.</p>

<p>Behind the construction projects surrounding the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, affordable housing is hard to come by. There were three apartment buildings in the block just north of the stadium, between Georgia and Figueroa Streets, but in the last year, tenants from two of the buildings were forced to move when the buildings were condemned. <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2009/apr/26/local/me-landlord26">Which appears to be just fine by owner, Frank McHugh</a>.

<p>The National Health Journalism Fellows will take a tour of the varied landscapes of Downtown Los Angeles this afternoon. Their guides, Sandra McNeill, Executive Director of the Figueroa Corridor Community Land Trust, and Roberto Bustillo, a tenant organizer for Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE), say that the much lauded revitalization projects are exacerbating problems faced by long-time tenants in the area.</p>

<p><em>The New York Times</em> reported in September that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/us/26domestic.html">domestic violence programs in the state of California have have been largely eliminated</a>. The Domestic Violence Program's last $16 million was cut completely in July, in efforts to close a near $24 billion state budget deficit.</p><p>Violence is a public health problem, said Eve F. Sheedy, Deputy City Attorney, Domestic Violence Legislative and Policy Advisor in the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office. It matters to public health that these resources have been cut.</p>

<p>Chemical remains pose health hazards to fish, migrant fishermenFor decades the Nyanza Color &amp; Chemical plant manufactured dye and textile chemicals in Ashland, Massachusetts. The site was settled in a populated area and was first identified as a hazard in 1971, when pollution was found in the nearby Sudbury River, once considered as a potential source of drinking water for the Boston area. In 1982 the site was put on the Superfund National Priority List and shut down. Over 45,000 tons of chemical sludge had been generated by the waste water treatment processes.

<p><a href="http://www.gipath.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id…. Patrick Dean</a> has pulled off a magic trick to make Houdini proud.</p>

<p>The founder and president of <a href="http://www.gipath.com/">GI Pathology</a>, a national testing laboratory based in Memphis, Dean has practiced medicine without a license in at least two states. Practicing without a license is often a career killer for a physician. Not so with Dean.</p>

<p>Over $1 billion in services are poured into the 13 poorest neighborhoods of Alameda County each year. It is what <a href="http://blogs.kqed.org/healthyideas/author/iton/">Anthony Iton</a> calls "services overkill."</p>

<p>Thomas Sullivan founded <a href="http://www.rockpointe.com/">Rockpointe Corporation</a>, a medical education company in 1995. Since then, the company has had success creating continuing medical education materials with funding from big drug company clients and nonprofit groups such as the American Heart Association. On his <a href="http://www.policymed.com">blog</a&gt;, Sullivan and Dr.

<p>When medical board investigators questioned Dr. Robbi Borjeson about what she had done to treat a patient suffering from a severe case of diabetes, she responded: "I prayed over him."</p> <p>Borjeson had visited the patient's home in January 2000, where she found him complaining of "fatigue, weight loss, increased thirst, increased urination and sores on his tongue," according to the <a href="http://azmd.gov/GLSuiteWeb/Repository/0/0/5/2/6b70e0e9-37cf-4288-a763-b… Medical Board</a>. She told him take some vitamins.</p>