Insights

<p>The readers of the <em>Lancaster (Penn.) New Era</em> had ample reason to be doubtful of the new doctor who had come to town being touted as “<a href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-9165959.html">the infant whisperer</a>.”</p> <p>The New Era wrote a classic, glowing profile, quoting patients who said Dr. Saroj K. Parida, chief of neonatology at Lancaster Regional Medical Center, had saved their children’s lives. And perhaps he had.</p>

<p>Who knew that the <a href="http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/">Dartmouth Atlas</a> could arouse such passion? Many journalists have been trained to see the influential dataset as one of their most reliable sources for reporting on health care costs and regional differences in how health care is delivered in the United States.

<p>Far fewer people would know Dr. Conrad Murray’s name if Michael Jackson had died in a hospital.</p> <p>Not only would Murray have people with similar training around to corroborate his story, but he would have entered the secretive peer review system.</p> <p>Doctors have the power to conduct “peer reviews” at hospitals that could lead to a doctor losing his privileges to perform surgeries, see patients and otherwise practice medicine there. In the best case scenario, physicians police their own and take stern – albeit secretive – action.</p>

<p>I've been writing on my personal blog for a few years now. All with the intention of sharing my thoughts, experiences and because practice makes perfect. So I write, write and write some moe' Yet, it never fails to amaze me where my writing takes me. From joining the DREAM Act movement to reporting and blogging on other sites. I'm always in motion, always doing something you know. That's how I ended up sharing my story once again today. I was invited to present and participate in a brain storming session with the USC School of Journalism, focusing on health.</p>

<p>Here’s where you have to pity <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;safe=off&amp;q=prednisone&amp;aq…. Conrad Murray</a>, regardless of whether you think he’s guilty.</p>

<p>It was a beautiful early spring day yesterday, so I visited the school farm stand at John Burroughs Elementary School.</p><p>At the farm stand, which is open every Wednesday afternoon, two women filled bags with fresh apples, oranges, and “snack packs” of locally harvested nuts and dried fruit. The women asked when the farm stand would start selling vegetables again.</p>

<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>

<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>

<p>Dan Pacheco, founder of <a href="http://www.printcasting.com/">Printcasting</a&gt;, says that the attendees of "Community Health and the Blogosphere "haven't just drunk the social media Kool-Aid, they are the Kool-Aid." And that's okay, because it's a much older phenomenon than you might expect.<br />

<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>