William Heisel

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.

Articles

To All Biopharmaceutical Scientists: You Are Not Disease Mongers!

Who's actually doing the disease mongering in pharma today? Not the research scientists.

Slap: UC Davis Still Reeling from Attack on Doctor Who Questioned PSA Tests

Why did University of California-Davis officials go after a professor who dared to criticize the university's support of prostate cancer screening?

Herd Immunity: Mount Sinai Medical Center Did a Public Service by Revealing MRSA Cases

A hospital's willingness to open up its MRSA case files means we know more about preventing deaths from these serious infections.

How Journalists Can Help Bridge Patient Safety Information Gap

Much of the recent focus on patient safety can credited to the health journalists who pierced the veil of silence and raised public awareness of medical errors.

Helen Haskell on Medical Errors: New Tools Capture the Latest Tolls of Medical Harm

Health care has changed radically in the last decade. Yet we're still using outdated statistics on medical errors. Why?

Helen Haskell on Tracking Medical Errors: How We Err When Counting the Casualties of Medical Care

Patient activist Helen Haskell argues that we won't be able to prevent medical errors unless we get a better handle on just how many errors there are.

Complete Health Reporting: Avoid Extremes to Avoid Disease Mongering

All the ways that overactive bladder syndrome can ruin your life: a classic example of disease mongering.

Complete Health Reporting: Does Baldness Really Need a Cure?

<p>Why do we have to talk about hair loss in terms of “treatment”? Everyday life is not a medical condition.</p>

Easing the Harm From Medical Errors: Q&A with Sorry Works! Founder Doug Wojcieszak

<p>Doug Wojcieszak talks about why doctors should apologize — not clam up — over their medical errors, and why some patients criticize his Sorry Works! program.</p>

Complete Health Reporting: Steer Clear of Disease-Mongering Quicksand

<p>You don't want to be a disease mongerer, do you? Here's how to avoid it in your work.</p>