Insights

You learn a lot when you spend months reporting on a given issue or community, as our fellows can attest. Whether you’re embarking on a big new story or seeking to go deeper on a given issue, it pays to learn from those who’ve already put in the shoe leather and crunched the data. In these essays and columns, our community of journalists steps back from the notebooks and tape to reflect on key lessons, highlight urgent themes, and offer sage advice on the essential health stories of the day. 

Author(s)
By Rebecca Plevin

<p>Gabriela Martinez and Susana Cruz summed up the some of the reasons there is an obesity crisis among the Latino community in the San Joaquín Valley.</p><p>Martínez, an immigrant from Colima, México and the mother of three children, said she has made a serious effort to improve her family's healthy. She has stopped&nbsp;buying her children snacks at the liquor stores that populate her Fresno neighborhood, and she now places a greater emphasis on playing outside with her kids, though she wishes her neighborhood offered more safe areas to ride bikes and play outdoors.</p>

Author(s)
By Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>Is geography destiny? At today’s <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/different-kind-health-summit">Community Health and the Blogosphere</a> conference (Twitter hashtag <a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23uscbloggercon">#uscbloggercon</a&gt;), participants wanted to know more about the ways in which where you live affects your health. If you’re interested in learning more for your reporting or blogging, here are some resources from ReportingonHealth and beyond.</p>

Author(s)
By Angilee Shah

<p>"I don't ever want to admit that I'm a blogger," Mark Horvath told a group of bloggers and hyperlocal site editors in downtown Los Angeles. "But I guess I can't do that anymore."</p>

Author(s)
By Angilee Shah

<p>Against the backdrop of today's televised health care summit in Washington, D.C., a Los Angeles gathering is discussing health in their communities from a decidedly different angle.<br /><br />"When people think of health, they frequently think of medicine," said Michelle Levander, director of The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, which convened the event. "But we encourage you think of health&nbsp; from a different standpoint, from the perspective of broader community well being."</p>

Author(s)
By Barbara Feder Ostrov

<p>A new <a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/asm/ab_1801-1850/ab_1802_bill_… bill</a> allowing school employees to provide insulin injections to schoolchildren with diabetes is worth watching as it makes its way through the California legislature. AB1802 was introduced Feb. 10 by Assemblyman Isadore Hall (D—Compton). Advocates for children with diabetes <a href="http://www.diabetesincaschools.com/hall-introduces-ab1802.html">are rallying behind it</a>.</p>

Author(s)
By William Heisel

<p>The doctors responsible for the safe delivery of millions of babies over the past two and a half centuries may have been serial killers.</p> <p>Some of the more cynical followers of Doctors Behaving Badly may not find this hard to believe, but it has caused quite a stir in Britain, where William Hunter and William Smellie created the science underlying modern day obstetrics. As Denis Campbell in the <em>London Observer</em> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/07/british-obstetrics-founders-mu…;

Author(s)
By Angilee Shah

<p>At ReportingonHealth, we aim to provide useful resources to members from a variety of sources. In that spirit, here are three fellowship opportunities that might interest you. Attend a conference, or become a fellow-in-residence at a university. Either way, if you are interested in these programs, apply soon.</p>