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

Don’t call it a witch hunt: Scientists who perpetrated autism-vaccine scare should be called out

<p>For a field rooted in fact and reason, science sure loves witchcraft.</p> <p>One of the most common responses to the decade-long effort to hold Andrew Wakefield and his colleagues accountable for creating <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/wakefields-wake-part-1-media-should-help-undo-damage-vaccine-autism-hoax">one of the biggest public health scares</a> in modern history – linking autism to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine – is to call the effort a “witch hunt.”</p>

Wakefield's Wake, Part 5: Treat advocacy groups with a healthy dose of skepticism

<p>One of the main groups involved in Andrew Wakefield’s vaccines-cause-autism scare was <a href="http://www.jabs.org.uk/">called JABS</a>.</p> <p>The letters stood for Justice Awareness and Basic Support. It billed itself as the “support group for vaccine-damaged children.” A jab, in British parlance, is the same as a shot in the US. And the group was focused on jabs from vaccines as the cause of autism and other disorders.</p>

Wakefield's Wake, Part 1: Media should help undo damage from vaccine-autism hoax

<p>Andrew Wakefield — creator of one of the greatest&nbsp;scares in medical history — had many accomplices in misleading the world about a link between vaccines and autism. Many in the media helped him spread his intellectual poison. Celebrities rallied behind his fake cause. And the scientific community helped keep the hoax alive by citing his work as if it were legitimate.</p>

Q&A with Dr. Steven Balt, Part 2: Physician discipline should be better targeted

<p>Last week Antidote introduced you to Dr. Steven Balt, the rare physician to have the courage to open up about his personal experiences with the physician discipline system. The <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/qa-dr-steven-balt-part-1-separating-personal-struggles-clinical-success">first part of our interview</a> was posted last week. The last part is below. <strong></strong><strong></strong></p>

Q&A with Dr. Steven Balt, Part 1: Separating personal struggles from clinical success

<p>When I wrote in 2009 about <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/doctors-addictions-left-hanging-diversion-program-dies" target="_blank">the death of the Medical Board of California’s diversion program</a>, some medical board staffers expressed disbelief that I would say anything nice about a program that had been so controversial.</p>