Insights

<p>Wikipedia has no entry for the term “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&amp;redirs=0… mill</a>.”</p> <p>Antidote offers the following: <em>A physician’s office where people suffering from injuries or chronic diseases are given high doses of addictive drugs to keep them returning for more and where people already addicted to painkillers can obtain drugs with no questions asked. </em></p> <p>Exhibit A is the Bloomington, Indiana office of Dr. Larry Dean Ratts.</p>

<p>Last week, the USC/California Endowment National Health Journalism Fellows were knee-deep in seminars and conversations about international trade, urban violence and community campaigns. As it turns out, these are all <a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/blogs/reinventing-health-beat-local-im… for a health beat</a>. The National Health Journalism Fellows and Dennis A. Hunt Fund for Health Journalism grant recipients convened in Los Angeles to expand their reporting horizons.

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

<p>Here’s what we’re reading today:</p> <p><strong>Alzheimer’s:</strong> The New Scientist Magazine offers a <a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19193-briefing-new-ways-to-diagno… Q&amp;A</a> on what the first new diagnostic guidelines in 25 years for Alzheimer’s disease could mean for doctors and patients – particularly when few new treatments are on the horizon.</p>

<p>Jeanne Bouillon nearly bled to death after a gynecological procedure went awry. When she found out that the doctor who had performed the procedure had been sued several times to the tune of more than $700,000, she started fighting in Illinois and in Washington D.C. for better disclosure laws that would allow patients to see a physician’s malpractice and disciplinary history. One piece of legislation she fought for, the <a href="http://www.tubal.org/SJBreportMarch02hearing.htm">Patient Right-to-Know Act</a>, eventually made its way into law in 2005.</p>

<p>Does anyone remember receiving healthcare in the 1960s? Everyone had affordable health insurance through their employer. All of the family was covered. Doctor visits were scheduled by whoever was in need of the care. That means, even if you were a 16-year-old and had the flu, you could still

<p>A lack of jobs, after school activities and other opportunities and resources are often blamed for the epidemic of gang activity and youth violence plaguing our country. Listening to numerous experts describe academic and first-hand experience with gangs and urban violence – including the permanent neurological and chemical impacts of this violence – during the National Health Journalism Fellowship last week, I wondered if jobs and activities for youth could really do much to quell this enormous problem with so many inter-related roots.</p>

<p>The Clean Trucks program and other innovations at the ports of L.A. and Long Beach have significantly reduced the diesel emissions around the ports, meaning important public health ramifications for the surrounding communities who are at higher risk of respiratory disease, cardiac disease and&nbsp; cancer because of the particulate matter and smog caused by diesel emissions.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.reportingonhealth.org/users/joannalin">Joanna Lin</a> graduated from USC in 2008, just before the U.S. economy began to nosedive. Since then, she has worked for five different media outlets, grew a professional journalism career in a time of upheaval, and developed a philosophy and fortitude about doing the work she loves.</p>

<p>If you've seen Jamie Oliver's <em>Food Revolution</em> on ABC, you might be interested in some recent studies about group and individual interventions for people who are overweight or at risk for diabetes.</p>