Insights

<p>There was a collective cry of alarm this week to news that the Medical Board of California had mishandled the case of a physician accused of negligence in the abortion-related death of a patient.</p> <p>I wrote about <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/doctor-appointed-medical-board-supervisor-had-been-disciplined-new-york-california">the Dr. Andrew Rutland case</a> on Tuesday, detailing how the medical board had appointed a doctor who had been disciplined by the board to oversee Rutland, in violation of the board’s own policies. Here is what happened next:</p>

<p>A <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/29/2/318?ijkey=i.LSSR… Health Affairs interview</a> with California HealthCare Foundation CEO <a href="http://www.chcf.org/aboutchcf/view.cfm?itemID=108866">Dr. Mark Smith</a> caught my eye because if you read closely, you can find some intriguing new story ideas for journalists interested in health.</p>

<p>The Medical Board of California broke its own rules and appointed a doctor who had been disciplined by the board to oversee the practice of an obstetrician now accused of negligence in a patient death.</p> <p><em>Antidote</em> reviewed records from both the medical board investigation and the criminal investigation into the care that Dr. Andrew Rutland gave a Chinese immigrant who died in his office in October 2009. The records underscore lapses in physician discipline that persisted years after scores of government and media investigations.</p>

<p>While a weekend snowstorm raged in Washington, D.C., a small group of health care advocates gathered in a conference room at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and were treated to a history lesson as well as a glimpse into the cold realities of Indian Country.</p><p>The topic: American Indian Health Policy. And unlike the weather that everyone talks about, a trio of speakers addressed a subject they insist is largely overlooked.</p>

<p>The FDA has been cracking down on companies claiming they can cure deadly diseases with unproven technologies, reminding health writers everywhere to be skeptical of the latest fads in alternative medicine.</p>

<p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium;"></span>When I was a kid, my parents gave me an Isaac Asimov book. &nbsp;I don't remember which one, but it was non-fiction, and his way of engaging the reader directly immediately drew me in. &nbsp;Several years later I found the works of Stephen Jay Gould. &nbsp;I dug up every book of his I could find and ended up getting the hardcover of each new collection as it was published.</p>

<p>When you first start a health beat, visit the licensing agency for all the health facilities in your area. It will give you a great story or two out of the gate. It also will initiate a work pattern that should yield many great stories in the years to come.</p>

<p>Many journalists trying to cover their county’s safety-net health care system find it confusing at first, what with its alphabet soup of DSH payments, FQHC and CHC clinics, SNCP funds and MISP programs.</p>

<p>We last heard about Dr. Lawrence James Williamson when he had gone through an <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/contraindications-dr-lawrence-james-williamson">extremely bad year</a> of temper tantrums, pill popping, waking blackouts and accusations he threatened his ex-wife and the mediators in his divorce.</p>

<p>I have completed one of my projects for The California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowship. Last Wednesday, I produced an hour-long segment on <a href="http://www.kpbs.org/news/these-days/">These Days</a> about the short- and long-term effects of concussions. <a href="http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/jan/20/repeated-concussions-can-cause-lif… segment</a> featured a neurosurgeon and a psychiatrist from the UCSD School of Medicine, and a ton of phone calls from our listeners.</p>