Insights

<p>Most reporters never have the misfortune of being sued for libel. If they are, there are broad free speech protections in court precedent, especially in California, that make it unlikely a plaintiff will win, unless a reporter has been truly reckless.</p>

<p>This weekend, we ran a story that looked at Shasta County's high rates of hysterectomies and back surgeries, an important -- and touchy -- topic in our community given Redding <a href="http://www.redding.com/news/2009/oct/24/former-rmc-heart-surgeon-realyv… still recovering</a> from its years-long ordeal following FBI agents investigating allegations of unnecessary heart procedures performed at what was then Redding Medical Center </p>

<p><a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/secondarypage-details.php?id=377">Felice Freyer</a>, veteran medical writer at the Providence Journal and <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/">Association of Health Care Journalists</a> board member, is surveying reporters about how state and local agencies are releasing, or refusing to release, basic demographic information (not names) about people who have died from H1N1/swine flu. </p>

<p><br />Some doctors crave distinction.</p><p>They carefully place their many diplomas and certificates on their wall to signal to patients that they are high achievers who can be trusted with surgical instruments and drugs that can cure or kill you, depending on how they are dosed.</p><p><a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/perv_doctor_hit_with_ny_biggest_3… Sorodsky</a> craved the distinction of being a doctor. Instead, he now has the distinction of being thrown into jail with a massive bail: $33 million.</p>

<p>The change in U.S. mammogram screening guidelines is certainly <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/health/17cancer.html?em">big news</a>, and it's not a one-day story. The obvious conflict is the disagreement between some major medical organizations and the <a href="http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/uspstfab.htm&quot; title="Group’s Web site.">United States Preventive Services Task Force</a>, which is now recommending that women get their first mammogram at age 50, rather than 40 as previously recommended. </p>

<p>In<a href="/resources/lessons/covering-alternative-medicine"> a piece on this site,</a> journalist Jane Allen gives some useful advice about covering alternative medicine, but there are some gaps that are are hard for a non-medical professional to recognize (and frankly, for many medical professionals as well). She quite rightly urges skepticism, but when looking into ideologic and muddled topic of alternative medicine, skepticism needs to be turned up to "11".

<p>When the <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20021020020858/http:/www.reproductivemedicin… of Reproductive Medicine</i></a> published a study that purported to prove that <a href="http://www.allaboutprayer.org/intercessory-prayer.htm">intercessory prayer</a> can heal people, there were many reasons to be doubtful, regardless of one's religious beliefs. </p>

<p>After a lively and wide-ranging discussion at our Health in the Blogosphere <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/Events/2009/091109CAEndowmentHealthJournalism…; Monday, some attendees have posted insightful wrap-ups on their blogs. I'll also be posting these on Twitter at <a href="http://twitter.com/search?q=%23uscblogcon">#uscblogcon</a>.</p><p>Here's a sampling of their thoughts: </p>

<p>Dr. Bruce Flamm, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California at Irvine, has been waging a lonely war for nearly a decade. He took the unusual step of accusing fellow scientific researchers of fakery. In 2001, the <i>Journal of Reproductive Medicine</i> published a paper titled, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&amp;db=PubMed&amp… prayer influence the success of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer?

<p>If you're trying to stay on top of the health reform debate and don't have time to scroll through thousands of Google News hits, here's a handy guide to some leading blogs that do it for you and offer great analysis to boot.</p>