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.

Articles

Should Medicare Yank Hospital Mistake Data? You Decide

One of the most powerful U.S. government agencies is bungling its public duties by planning to remove information about hospital-acquired conditions measurements from a website that allows patients to see how hospitals stack up against the national average.

Slap: University of Kentucky Has Threatened A Reporter Before

After Kentucky Kernel reporter Aaron Smith directly called two other students to confirm a rumor and reported their status as new walk-on basketball players in the newspaper, the University of Kentucky barred Smith from covering the school’s annual event where reporters interview team members.

Slap: University of Kentucky Sues Its Own Public Radio Reporter

If the local children’s hospital that performs heart surgeries on kids has been suspended and is being investigated, the public deserves to know what’s going on. If the hospital is funded by public dollars, there should not be a fight over letting the public know what’s going on.