Insights

<p>On Monday, I listened in on a telephone press briefing on the impact of national health reform on Californians. The briefing, sponsored by the California advocacy group Health Access, highlighted new research from the <a href="http://www.healthpolicy.ucla.edu">UCLA Center for Health Policy Research</a>, the <a href="http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/">UC-Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education</a> and the labor-backed advocacy group <a href="http://healthcareforamericanow.org/">Health Care For America Now</a> (HCAN). </p>

<p>The goal was anything but modest. On Monday, 22 leaders from San Francisco Bay Area public health and journalism circles gathered in Oakland to brainstorm about ways to transform the way journalists report on health.</p>

Comprehensive immigration reform hasn't happened since 1986, when the Immigration Reform & Control Act (IRCA) was passed. Now immigration reform is in the air once again - with President Obama saying the issue will be tackled next year. What is it like for undocumented and seasonal workers to get health care under the current system? Will immigration reform change things?

<p>Employees everywhere sleep a little easier knowing that their company covers the bulk of the cost of their disability insurance. If they are hit by a car or fall of their roof or incur some other injury that prevents them from working, they can count at least a modest income from their insurance policy.</p><p>At least that's how the insurance company's brochures make it sound.</p>

<p>Career archivist Kim Klausner takes her roles as a historian and as a public health advocate equally seriously. As the Industry Documents Digital Libraries Manager for the University of California-San Francisco, she is in charge of the <a href="http://dida.library.ucsf.edu/">Drug Industry Documents Archive</a>, a collection of thousands of records that shine a light on practices by Wyeth, Pfizer, Abbott and other Big Pharma companies.</p>

<p>Here's a (belated) wrap-up of the <a href="http://www.health2con.com/">Health 2.0 conference</a> in San Francisco earlier this month, and some fodder for future stories.</p>

<p>Prostate cancer affects 80% of men around the world. It's the second most common cancer in men after long cancer also, according to The National Cancer Institute is the most common cancer among hispanic men. As part of my fellowship project, on Thursday October 22nd at 9:30 pm I will be hosting a Spanish Program on Prostate cancer that will air live on KPFK 90.7fm Los Angeles, you can also listen by visiting us at<a href="http://www.kpfk.org/">http://www.kpfk.org/</a>.</p&gt;

<p><a href="/blogs/2009/07/01/wrong-doctor-or-wrong-patient-michael-jacksons-physician-has-some-explaining-do">Dr. Conrad Murray</a>, accused of giving Michael Jackson a lethal dose of <a href="/blogs/see-michael-jackson-doctor%E2%80%99s-alleged-slipup-look-label">propofol</a>, has told a judge that

<p>A colleague of mine, Dave Wasson, came back from a reporting conference once and passed on a bit of wisdom he had picked up: "If you ever hear someone say that something is a win-win, you know that someone is losing big time." </p>

<p>I have made that phrase a maxim that has never steered me wrong.</p>

<p>Perhaps more than anyone who has ever written about ghostwriting in medical literature, Kim Klausner knows where the bodies are buried. Klausner is the Industry Documents Digital Libraries Manager for the University of California-San Francisco, which means she is in charge of the <a href="http://dida.library.ucsf.edu/">Drug Industry Documents Archive</a>, a collection of thousands of documents that detail how the drug industry has used continuing medical education and medical literature to help market its products. </p>