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

Q&A with Dr. John Dombrowski: Michael Jackson's bungled pain management may have killed him

<p>Four days after Michael Jackson died of an unexpected heart attack on June 25, <a href="http://www.dcpaindoc.com/html/physician_profile.html">Dr. John Dombrowski</a>,an anesthesiologist and pain management specialist, posted <a href="http://www.dcpaindoc.com/THE_DEATH_OF_MICHAEL_JACKSON_062909.pdf">a letter</a> on his Web site, demanding better pain management for all patients and a recognition that pain care is an important specialty.</p>

Doctors Behaving Badly: Dr. Anand Dhanda

<p>It sounds like a line a standup comic might use while flailing for a laugh: "What's a guy gotta do around here to get arrested? Steal somebody's kidney?"</p> <p>If you are a doctor in a hospital in most of the United States, the answer is: yes.</p>

To see Michael Jackson doctor's alleged slipup, look at the label

<p><em>UPDATE: The Associated Press <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090728/ap_on_re_us/us_michael_jackson_inve…; Monday afternoon that Dr. Conrad Murray gave Jackson propofol to help him sleep, and the dose proved to be lethal. Today, police and federal drug enforcement officials are reportedly <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/07/detectives-in-michael-jac…; Murray's Las Vegas home. <br /></em></p><p>It is the most anticipated autopsy in modern history.</p>

Doctors Behaving Badly: Dr. Bruce Anthony Ames, Jr.

<p>Ask your doctors about the hardest period of their lives, and they likely will say their medical residency. The hours are long. The work is mentally and physically exhausting. There's little credit when you get something right. Getting something terribly wrong can send you packing.</p> <p>Dr. Bruce Anthony Ames, Jr. (Oregon License No. 23261, California 97046) found a hobby, of sorts, to relieve his stress.</p>

Hospitals Leave National Practitioner Data Bank Dangerously Short on Data

<p>Public Citizen put together an <a href="http://www.citizen.org/documents/1873.pdf">important report</a> in May that was mostly missed by the <a href="http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/042209/sta_431717193.shtml">press</…; (including me).</p> <p>It's a comprehensive and critical investigation of <a href="http://www.npdb-hipdb.hrsa.gov/">The National Practitioner Data Bank</a> (NPDB), created by the <a href="http://www.npdb-hipdb.hrsa.gov/legislation/title4.html">Health Care Quality Improvement Act</a> 19 years ago, ostensibly to protect patients from rogue doctors.</p>

Doctors Behaving Badly: Dr. Alexander Kalk

<p>To be generous, we could say that Dr. Alexander Kalk of Creve Coeur, Mo. was a workaholic.</p> <p>He literally lived in his medical office, according to the medical board in Missouri, and was so busy, apparently, that he did not have time to change his clothes or take a shower.</p> <p>Walking around in the same clothes day after day might make a guy irritable. So perhaps it's understandable that he took to berating his employees and sending threatening messages to a medical billing company.</p>

California nursing board firings, resignations follow LAT/ProPublica investigation

<p>Often following a major journalistic investigation a governor or a senator or a president even will call for hearings or declare the creation of a blue ribbon panel to assess the situation and decide how to proceed. </p><p>Years can go by before a report, usually thick with euphemism and buck passing, lands on someone's desk, often a different governor or senator or president than the one who called for the assessment. Processes are "streamlined." Efficiencies are realized. Nothing really changes.</p>

When Caregivers Harm: Learning from the ProPublica-Los Angeles Times Nurse Investigation

<p>By the time you read about the case of 9-year-old Caitlin Greenwell, unable to talk because her brain was starved of oxygen during a botched birth, you are convinced: the oversight of nurses in California is abysmal. </p>

<p>Her story is deep inside "<a href="http://www.propublica.org/feature/when-caregivers-harm-california-probl… Caregivers Harm</a>," an investigative collaboration between <a href="http://www.propublica.org/">ProPublica</a&gt; and the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/">Los Angeles Times</a> published Sunday.</p>