Insights

<p>Today's <em>Daily Briefing</em> travels to Chinese mental institutions, California prisons, and all over the map with bogus trend stories.<br />

<p>Sometimes justice does win.</p> <p>Antidote <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/doctors-behaving-badly-cornered-doctor-turns-nurses-help-friendly-sheriff">wrote last year</a> about how Dr. Rolando Arafiles in Kermit, Texas, had used his clout to persuade Winkler County Sheriff <a href="http://www.co.winkler.tx.us/wcso.htm">Robert Roberts</a> to go after two nurses who had accused him of stealing hospital supplies and using his medical office to run an herbal remedy business.</p>

<p>When Linda Marsa received a copy of the December issue of <em>Discover</em> magazine in the mail, she was thrilled. Her story about climate change and its effect on long forgotten diseases in America made the cover. Never mind that she has been a journalist for 30 years, Marsa finds health journalism as riveting now as when she first began. And she is still learning ways to be a better freelancer.</p>

<p>When does health begin? And how far back do you have to go to be truly healthy? That's the gist of an article I just read in the Nov. 8 issue of Newsweek, entitled "<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/30/how-your-experiences-change-your-spe… of the Grandfathers</a>," by Sharon Begley.</p>

<p>Last week two different television programs aired that depicted first a murder (on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tnt.tv/series/closer&quot; title="Closer">Closer</a>) and then a brutal assault (on <a href="http://tv.yahoo.com/private-practice/show/41365;_ylt=AsykvNm2ux7_YNVfRJ…; title="Private Pra

<p>I was all set to write this post about how journalists could mine the burgeoning field of “health impact assessments” for stories when I noticed that Melissa Sweet of the excellent <a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/">Croakey health policy blog</a> already had written <a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/croakey/2010/11/11/how-are-health-impact-ass… great post on the topic</a>. Drat.</p> <p>Fortunately, Melissa was writing for Australians, so I still can add my two cents.</p>

<p>Dori Maynard, the president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, spends her life talking to journalists about how factors like race, gender, and age affect our understanding of what's news and our ability to empathize with our subjects. She spoke compellingly about these issues just a few weeks ago at our most recent Fellowship sessions. As she waited for a foundation executive earlier this month in the lobby of a Hampton Inn in Washington, she had a chilling firsthand experience that will no doubt inform her presentations to come.

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p> <p><strong>ADHD:</strong> Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder diagnoses are on the rise, with nearly one in 10 kids being diagnosed with the condition at some point in their lives. NPR’s Scott Hensley <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/11/11/131243971/adhd-on-the-rise-1… the just-released CDC data</a>. &nbsp;</p>

<p>The recent debate over CT lung cancer screening for heavy smokers is a great example of how big the stakes can be when reporting on medical screening, and how important it is to get the story right. Remember last year’s <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/17/AR20091… arguments</a> over the merits of breast cancer screening mammograms for women under 50?</p>

<p>Here’s what we’re checking out today:</p>