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

Conrad Murray's Mistakes, Part 6: Bad choices in Michael Jackson’s death led to rare homicide finding

<p>The doctor did it. In the bedroom. With an an anesthetic.</p> <p>The Los Angeles County Coroner spent 51 pages of minute calculations and detailed examinations to come to that simple conclusion on Aug. 24, 2009. Jackson had died from a lethal dose of propofol and other drugs and the <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/08/michael-jackson-3.html">d… was a homicide</a>.</p> <p>This was perhaps the most surprising thing about the Michael Jackson case, because coroners are so reluctant to say a physician killed someone.</p>

Doctors Behaving Badly: For ‘infant whisperer,’ insurance fraud was like stealing candy from babies

<p>The readers of the <em>Lancaster (Penn.) New Era</em> had ample reason to be doubtful of the new doctor who had come to town being touted as “<a href="http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-9165959.html">the infant whisperer</a>.”</p> <p>The New Era wrote a classic, glowing profile, quoting patients who said Dr. Saroj K. Parida, chief of neonatology at Lancaster Regional Medical Center, had saved their children’s lives. And perhaps he had.</p>

Conrad Murray's Mistakes, Part 5: Isolated from his peers, Michael Jackson's doctor had no cover

<p>Far fewer people would know Dr. Conrad Murray’s name if Michael Jackson had died in a hospital.</p> <p>Not only would Murray have people with similar training around to corroborate his story, but he would have entered the secretive peer review system.</p> <p>Doctors have the power to conduct “peer reviews” at hospitals that could lead to a doctor losing his privileges to perform surgeries, see patients and otherwise practice medicine there. In the best case scenario, physicians police their own and take stern – albeit secretive – action.</p>

Doctors Behaving Badly: Obstetrics pioneers may have killed for science

<p>The doctors responsible for the safe delivery of millions of babies over the past two and a half centuries may have been serial killers.</p> <p>Some of the more cynical followers of Doctors Behaving Badly may not find this hard to believe, but it has caused quite a stir in Britain, where William Hunter and William Smellie created the science underlying modern day obstetrics. As Denis Campbell in the <em>London Observer</em> <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/07/british-obstetrics-founders-mu…;

Conrad Murray's Mistakes, Part 3: Using a Hospital-Only Drug in Michael Jackson's Bedroom

<p>It was bad enough for Dr. Conrad Murray to be giving Michael Jackson propofol when <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/michael-jackson%E2%80%99s-doctor%E2%80%99s-mistakes-part-2-lack-training-gives-prosecutors-ammo-criminal-case">he had no training</a> administering anesthetics. His second mistake was using a dangerous drug in an improper setting: a bedroom.</p> <p>Here was Murray’s surgical suite, according to <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0208101jackson3.html">t… Los Angeles County Coroner’s report</a>:</p>

Conrad Murray's Mistakes: Why does Michael Jackson's doctor face criminal charges when others don't?

<p>Because of the intense media swarm around Michael Jackson’s death, it might have seemed inevitable that the physician who administered the fatal dose of anesthesia to the pop singer would be charged with a crime.</p> <p>But there’s a reason Dr. Conrad Murray was not formally accused of anything until nearly eight months after Jackson’s death. Doctors who screw up are rarely charged with crimes, unless they have committed <a href="http://sandiego.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/sd020910.htm">insurance fraud</a>.<strong></strong></p> <p>Mostly, this makes sense.<strong></strong></p>

The Ozone Cure, Part 2: No M.D. required to test unproven medical claims

<p>When the FDA <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/ozone-cure-part-1-unproven-machines-can-rob-patients-crucial-time">seized 77 ozone generators</a> from Applied Ozone Systems in Auburn, California recently, it was a reminder to health writers to ask tough questions about unproven medical techniques being touted as miracle cures.</p> <p>Here are five musts for stories about ozone therapy and similar treatments.</p>