Insights

<p><em>The Wall Street Journal</em>’s <a href="http://www.soros.org/initiatives/fellowship/fellows/schoofs_2008">Mark Schoofs</a> and <a href="http://businessjournalism.org/2010/10/27/sifting-medicare-claims-for-fr… Tamman</a> have been dismantling Medicare’s claims database piece by piece for months in a series of blockbuster stories under the umbrella “<a href="http://topics.wsj.com/subject/S/secrets-of-the-system/6281">Secrets of the System</a>.”</p>

<p>From the Jonas Brothers to Antonio Banderas, celebrities are cutting deals with Big Pharma. Plus more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>Some officials call for a committment to zero emissions as railard facilities sitting next to homes and schools plan to double in size.</p>

<p>It’s nice to hear an attorney speak plainly.</p> <p>New Jersey Deputy Attorney General Debra Conrad said recently, of a doctor accused of selling painkillers to patients he had never examined, that he “is no different than a street-corner drug dealer. He sold drugs to people for money. The only difference is that he did so under cover of his medical practice."</p> <p>The doctor in question is <a href="http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2010/07/jersey_city_doc_pleads.html"…. Magdy Elamir</a>.</p>

<p>As 2011 unfolds, I’d like to share some of my favorite health journalism – some but not all of it policy-related – from 2010. This is definitely not a best-of list, but rather journalism that can inspire and teach us. &nbsp;Here are <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/favorite-health-journalism-2010-part-1">my first five picks</a>, and below are my second five, in no particular order of importance. Do you have other recommendations for must-read health journalism from last year? Share it in the comments below.</p>

<p>André Picard has an enviable and unusual journalism career. He began his professional life as a summer intern at <em>The Globe and Mail</em> in Canada and stayed on with the paper for 24 years. "Yes, I have a very boring CV," Picard joked in a phone interview from Montréal.</p>

<p>A good friend of mine read <a href="../../../../../../../../category/keywords/wakefields-wake">my recent posts about Andrew Wakefield</a> and the controversy over whether vaccines have any role in causing autism and asked me whether I was concerned for my safety.</p>

<p>“An important idea is getting its test run in America: the creation of intensive outpatient care to target hot spots and thereby reduce over-all health care costs.”</p>

<p>Think floods like the ones in Pakistan and Australia can't happen in California?&nbsp; Think again, say government researchers.</p>

<p>A new form of academic peer review surfaces on Twitter, and it can get ugly. Plus more from our Daily Briefing.</p>