Insights

<p>This is the second part of my <a href="/blogs/qa-dr-john-dombrowski-michael-jacksons-bungled-pain-management-may-have-killed-him">conversation</a> with <a href="http://www.dcpaindoc.com/html/physician_profile.html">Dr. John Dombrowski</a>, a Washington D.C. anesthesiologist and pain management specialist who sits on the American Society of Anesthesiology's <a href="http://www.asahq.org/aboutAsa/asaCommitteeListing.htm#admin">administra… affairs</a> committee.</p>

<p>The doors are open at the Society of Professional Journalists, Northern California, 2009 Excellence in Journalism Competition.</p><p>From chapter president Ricardo Sandoval:</p><blockquote><p>"These awards honor the journalists whose work best reflects the SPJ ideals of initiative, integrity, talent and compassion.</p><p>In addition to our regular categories, we are adding three new ones this year to reflect the ongoing evolution of the delivery of news and comment.</p>

<p>Anesthesiologists everywhere <a href="/blogs/qa-dr-john-dombrowski-michael-jacksons-bungled-pain-management-may-have-killed-him">cringed</a> when they heard the news that Michael Jackson was found dead with a bag of <a href="/blogs/see-michael-jackson-doctor%E2%80%99s-alleged-slipup-look-label">propofol</a> nearby.</p> <p>The drug is too strong to be used as a sleep aid and deceptively simple to administer. Anesthesia drugs like propofol require constant monitoring, and Jackson, apparently, was<br /> left unattended after receiving the drug.</p>

<p>Former California Endowment Health Journalism Fellows are picking up awards and nods all over the western United States this year. Here are some highlights from the award-winning reporting produced as fellowship projects:</p>

<p>Pia Christensen of the Association of Health Care Journalists responded to an <a href="http://bit.ly/VQ4KV">earlier blog post</a> that I had essentially ignored some good reporting on the <a href="http://www.tradewatch.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7659&amp;secID=11… Citizen report</a> about how hospitals are failing in a very big way to report bad doctors to the National Practitioner Data Bank. She cited three stories, saying: </p>

<p>I recently <a href="/blogs/cdcs-environmental-health-tracking-system-new-slow-resource-journalists">wrote</a> about the new <a href="http://ephtracking.cdc.gov/showHome.action">National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network</a> launched by the Centers for Disease Control. A fascinating resource for reporters, but
molasses-slow at its debut. </p>

<p>I'm happy to report that after playing with the network again, the online database has recovered from its torpor, which might be explained by an estimated 10,000 hits upon its launch. </p>

<p>Four days after Michael Jackson died of an unexpected heart attack on June 25, <a href="http://www.dcpaindoc.com/html/physician_profile.html">Dr. John Dombrowski</a>,an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, posted <a href="http://www.dcpaindoc.com/THE_DEATH_OF_MICHAEL_JACKSON_062909.pdf">a letter</a> on his Web site, demanding better pain management for all patients and a recognition that pain care is an important specialty.</p>

Trudy Lieberman is the president of The Association of Health Care Journalists board of directors, and she is the director of the health and medicine reporting program at the Graduate School of Journalism at City University of New York. Ms. Lieberman is also a contributing editor to the Columbia Journalism Review, and a contributor to The Nation. Below is her blog post on how health care reporting is possible - and necessary!

<p>We live in California. That means wildfire. But in some areas, particularly poor rural ones surrouned by federal forest land, the smoke could be slowly making residents sick.</p><p>This spring, the <i>Redding Record Searchlight</i> teamed with the Center for California Health Care Journalism to discover that last summer's wildfires made many poor, elderly residents seriously ill. Some continue to have chronic respiratory problems a year later.</p>