Insights

<p><em>UPDATE:</em> Rutland will be allowed to continue practicing but cannot perform surgeries or deliveries after a judge's Jan. 7 decision. Here's the Orange County Register <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/articles/rutland-227531-board-medical.html">s…;

<p>Drug-resistant infections are one of the world’s biggest emerging health problems, but they don’t seem to get much sustained media attention except when there’s an outbreak of MRSA. That’s why a new series of articles on drug resistance around the world, based on a six-month investigation by Associated Press reporters Margie Mason and Martha Mendoza, is so welcome.

<p>Dr. Earl Bradley had rooms in his pediatric practice decorated with Disney characters. Standard issue for the field.</p> <p>He also had a merry-go-round and a Ferris wheel, which might be pushing the boundaries of childlike enthusiasm.</p> <p>What made Bradley truly unusual, though, were the six handheld video cameras he kept. He used them, police say, to film himself molesting patients. They suspect he may have victimized more than 100 children, often bringing them into the basement of his office where he gave them toys to play with but also terrorized them.</p>

<p>From health disparities to depression, “food deserts” to prison medical care, the broadcast projects of our recent California Endowment Health Journalism Fellows covered a wide variety of critical health issues. Here’s a sampling of their work:</p>

<p><a href="http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/hepc_ez/">Hepatitis C</a> tore through Las Vegas in February 2008, prompting health officials to call for <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/28/health/main3886846.shtml">40,… people</a> to be tested for the disease. With estimates of more than 100 cases stemming from the outbreak and possibly thousands of infections that went unreported, it was later declared the largest Hepatitis C outbreak in US history, putting more people at risk than all previous outbreaks combined.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p>On Tuesday, I posted <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/health-journalism-2009-some-years-most-noteworthy-stories">the first half</a> of my “Top 10 list” of noteworthy health journalism. Here’s the second half. It bears repeating: this definitely isn’t a best-of list, and admittedly, it’s print-centric. There’s lots of excellent work out there that I didn’t have a chance to read or view or listen to. But the five stories below are worth reading, and learning from.</p>

<p>Dr. F.D. Toms, a New Jersey doctor, found himself in a bind.</p> <p>Rumors had been running around town that he had been sleeping with another man’s wife. The spurned husband, William Smith, showed up at the doctor’s office demanding to see him.</p> <p>Toms panicked. Seeing Smith charging at him, Toms grabbed a container of <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9C06E4DE1430E132A2575… acid</a> and threw it in Smith’s face. Toms said later that he thought he had grabbed a bottle of ammonia.</p>

<p>ReportingonHealth’s Antidote blogger, William Heisel, recently <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/bad-nurses-bad-doctors-and-bad-seeds-part-2-favorite-health-stories-2009">posted</a> his 10 favorite stories of the year. Most of them had an investigative bent. Now, it’s my turn.</p>

<p>I started listing <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/popsicles-popcorn-and-premarin-antidote%E2%80%99s-favorite-health-stories-2009">my favorite stories</a> of the past year, in no particular order, on Dec. 21. Here is the rest of the list.</p> <p><strong>“<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/health/21radiation.html">At VA Hospital, A Rogue Cancer Unit</a>,” Walt Bogdanich, <em>The New York Times</em></strong></p>

<p><em>We have a guest post today from insurance blogger Alan Katz, past president of both the National and the California Associations of Health Underwriters. His <a href="http://alankatz.wordpress.com/">blog</a&gt; is well worth your time if you cover health reform or health insurance. </em><strong><br /></strong></p>