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

Researcher who regretted ghost-written HRT review has more regrets

<p>In October, <em>Antidote</em> reported that <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/researcher-regrets-ghostwritten-hormone-therapy-review">Dr. John Eden</a>, a well-respected Australian hormone researcher and the founder and director of the <a href="http://www.sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au/rhw/MenopauceCentre.asp">Sydney Menopause Centre</a>, had second thoughts about his participation in a review article about hormone replacement therapy (HRT) that was written with the help of pharmaceutical giant Wyeth.</p>

Behind the MRSA Epidemic: Q&A with Maryn McKenna, author of Superbug

<p><a href="http://www.marynmckenna.com/home.html">Maryn McKenna</a> has lived inside the "hot zone" for much of her reporting career. She honed her craft at the <em>Atlanta Journal-Constitution</em>, where she was much admired for her coverage of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It takes skill to persuade any large government agency to give up some of its secrets, but McKenna did just that and turned them into fascinating stories. She has since taken the enviable career path of writing books.

Doctors Behaving Badly: WMDs won't cost doctors their MD in Arkansas

<p>What does it take for a doctor to lose his license in Arkansas?</p> <p><a href="http://www.armedicalboard.org/public/verify/results.aspx?strPHIDNO=ASMB…. Randeep Singh Mann</a> appears to have pushed the envelope just about as far as it can go, and he is still holding an active medical license from that state.</p> <p>Mann, an internist in Russellville, is accused of <a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/are/news_releases/PDFs_2010News_Releases/Ja…; the head of the Arkansas State Medical Board by planting a bomb in his driveway.</p>

The Shadow Practice, Part 7: Punishment for drug-dealing doctors more severe in Arizona

<p>One doctor allowed her clinics in Santa Ana, California, to be used as front operations for selling highly addictive painkillers.</p> <p>Another doctor agreed to be paid $2,000 a month for the use of his registration with the DEA so that the front operations could keep up their supply.</p> <p>Another doctor was willing to rent his registration for half that.</p> <p>All of them were caught red-handed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. Medical Board of California investigations are not made public, but, so far, none of them have been disciplined in California.</p>

Two reporters catch the same doctor in a very similar act

<p>Devoted readers of Antidote's <em>Doctors Behaving Badly</em> posts might get the impression that all doctors have trouble cutting straight, prescribing properly or keeping their hands out of their patients' underwear.</p> <p>Of course, these doctors are a small, but pungent, sore on an otherwise healthy body of professionals working diligently help cure what ails us. I received an email this week that proved to me just how small the world of dangerous doctors is.</p> <p>It was within minutes of my sending out a <em>Doctors Behaving Badly</em> about Dr. Gary W. Hall in Phoenix.</p>

The Shadow Practice Part 5: Drug pushers running this clinic were far from saints

<p>Low on cash, his reputation shredded by <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/shadow-practice-part-4-doc-who-couldn%E2%80%99t-stitch-straight-begs-patients-loans">patient complaints</a> about botched plastic surgeries, <a href="http://licenselookup.mbc.ca.gov/licenselookup/lookup.php?LicenseType=G&…. Harrell Robinson</a> must have felt he had a guardian angel when Magdalena Annan approached him.</p> <p>Annan ran the beatific sounding Madre Maria Ines Teresa Health Center at 1523 Broadway Street in Santa Ana, which targeted Southern California immigrants.</p>