Insights

<p>Better ER care for VIPs, lobbying by a Medicare fraudster, homeland security and breast implants, and more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>The doctors behind the "Diets Fail!" campaign to get people to undergo Lap-Band surgery have innovated again. Failing to win a libel case against the newspaper that exposed their shady business practices, they are attempting to persuade a judge to treat newspaper reporters like the Mafia.</p>

<p>Even if you're not a fan of commemorative disease days or months, there are some intriguing story angles if you end up covering National Depression Screening Day this week. Here are ideas and resources.</p>

<p>Hospitals balk at expensive retrofitting, drunk driving declines, food safety problems at the port and more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>More controversy over Avastin, trimming Medicare's behemoth budget, and a Nobel Prize tragedy, plus more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>I'm highlighting "slaps" — lawsuits, threats or other attempts to shut up health journalists or whistleblowers. Has this happened to you or your colleagues? Let me know.</p>

<p>At the recent <a href="http://www.health2con.com/">Health 2.0 conference</a> in San Francisco, it was easy to get wrapped up in discussions of APIs and EMRs and data utility layers. But there's plenty of interesting stuff happening in the world of consumer health content, too.</p>

<p>Every once in a while, a story not only finds a reporter, it hounds her. That was the case with my new book about two friends who blew the whistle on one of the deadliest prescription drugs in U.S. history.</p>

<p>In this excerpt from Kathleen Sharp's new book, two friends-turned-pharma-whistleblowers attend an extravagant Wild West&nbsp; trip rewarding them for selling the prescription drug Procrit.</p>

<p>The average immigrant comes to the United States as a healthier individual than the average U.S.-born American. However, by the time they reach the age of 75 or 80, immigrants suffer from much higher rates of chronic illness than their American-born peers.</p>