William Heisel
Contributing Editor
Contributing Editor
I have reported on health for most of my career. My work as an investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register exposed problems with the fertility industry, the trade in human body parts and the use of illegal drugs in sports. I helped create a first-of-its-kind report card judging hospitals on a wide array of measures for a story that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. I was one of the lead reporters on a series of stories about lead in candy, a series that also was a finalist for the Pulitzer.For the Center for Health Journalism (previously known as Reporting on Health), I have written about investigative health reporting and occasionally broke news on my column, Antidote. I also was the project editor on the Just One Breath collaborative reporting series. These days, for the University of Washington, I now work as the Executive Director for Insitutue for Health Metrics and Evaluation's Client Services, a social enterprise. You can follow me on Twitter @wheisel.
Scientists and reporters are watching for a full-blown COVID-19 resurgence. How will we know when we're there? Keep these confounding factors in mind.
The federal funding spigot has been turned on full force to combat COVID-19. That means journalists should start keeping tabs now.
Why reporters should explain to their audiences how misleading case counts really are.
"If I had to grade journalists on this point during the crisis I would give them a B+ on writing about uncertainty in epidemiology."
How reporters have been asking about whether their communities are ready for the expected surge of patients suffering from COVID-19.
A powerful new modeling tool from the University of Washington can help you ask tough questions about what the health care system in your state is doing to prepare.
If you’re like me, you are alarmed by the rates of complications and deaths from sepsis worldwide. As a reporter, where do you start? Hospital Compare is a good place to begin.
Why is sepsis such a maddening challenge, and why should reporters care?
Why do so many able-bodied actors take on roles portraying a person with disabilities?
An easily searchable database allows you to see quick visualizations of your hospital system’s most recent financial trends.