Insights

You learn a lot when you spend months reporting on a given issue or community, as our fellows can attest. Whether you’re embarking on a big new story or seeking to go deeper on a given issue, it pays to learn from those who’ve already put in the shoe leather and crunched the data. In these essays and columns, our community of journalists steps back from the notebooks and tape to reflect on key lessons, highlight urgent themes, and offer sage advice on the essential health stories of the day. 

Live Organ Donations

By Deborah Shelton

<p>Probably every health reporter in the country has been asked at one time or another to write a story about live organ donors. But is the obvious benefiit for the recipient really worth the risk to the living donor?</p>

Hospitals Leave National Practitioner Data Bank Dangerously Short on Data

By William Heisel

<p>Public Citizen put together an <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/1873.pdf">important report</a> in May that was mostly missed by the <a href="http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/042209/sta_431717193.shtml">press</…; (including me).</p> <p>It's a comprehensive and critical investigation of <a href="http://www.npdb-hipdb.hrsa.gov/">The National Practitioner Data Bank</a> (NPDB), created by the <a href="http://www.npdb-hipdb.hrsa.gov/legislation/title4.html">Health Care Quality Improvement Act</a> 19 years ago, ostensibly to protect patients from rogue doctors.</p>

Doctors Behaving Badly: Dr. Alexander Kalk

By William Heisel

<p>To be generous, we could say that Dr. Alexander Kalk of Creve Coeur, Mo. was a workaholic.</p> <p>He literally lived in his medical office, according to the medical board in Missouri, and was so busy, apparently, that he did not have time to change his clothes or take a shower.</p> <p>Walking around in the same clothes day after day might make a guy irritable. So perhaps it's understandable that he took to berating his employees and sending threatening messages to a medical billing company.</p>

Work in Progress: Health Care in the Silicon Valley

By George Sampson

<p>I am a California Broadcast Fellow this year. For my fellowship project, I am developing three series of radio reports 1590 KLIV, an all-news radio station in San Jose, Ca. and I'm looking for feedback. Here's a synopsis of the three series:</p><p> <b>1. What's Killing Silicon Valley?</b></p>

California nursing board firings, resignations follow LAT/ProPublica investigation

By William Heisel

<p>Often following a major journalistic investigation a governor or a senator or a president even will call for hearings or declare the creation of a blue ribbon panel to assess the situation and decide how to proceed. </p><p>Years can go by before a report, usually thick with euphemism and buck passing, lands on someone's desk, often a different governor or senator or president than the one who called for the assessment. Processes are "streamlined." Efficiencies are realized. Nothing really changes.</p>

Writing about Eating Disorders

By Sheila Himmel

<p>Eleven million Americans have eating disorders. Here are tips on covering this complex disease from a veteran journalist who faced the issue in her own family.</p>

When Caregivers Harm: Learning from the ProPublica-Los Angeles Times Nurse Investigation

By William Heisel

<p>By the time you read about the case of 9-year-old Caitlin Greenwell, unable to talk because her brain was starved of oxygen during a botched birth, you are convinced: the oversight of nurses in California is abysmal. </p>

<p>Her story is deep inside "<a href="http://www.propublica.org/feature/when-caregivers-harm-california-probl… Caregivers Harm</a>," an investigative collaboration between <a href="http://www.propublica.org/">ProPublica</a&gt; and the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/">Los Angeles Times</a> published Sunday.</p>