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

Homeland Security Money and Swine Flu Preparedness

<p>State, local and national agencies were supposed to be prepared for this swine flu outbreak. After September 11<sup>th</sup>, money started flowing to law enforcement agencies and public health departments to help them gear up specifically for a chemical or biological threat.</p><p>So how was that money spent?</p><p>On the eve of the fifth anniversary of Sept. 11, my colleague here at Center for Health Journalism Digital, Barbara Feder Ostrov, wrote a great piece for the San Jose Mercury News that detailed how money in the San Jose area was being spent. </p>

Swine Flu: Is Your Local School Prepared?

<p>The swine flu scare in the United States may have started with just two Southern California children, but it intensified with the discovery ofmore than two dozeninfected students at a New York City school. St. Francis Preparatory Schoolreported that 100 students had gone on a trip to Mexico recently and that, since the trip, 28 students at the school had come down with symptoms of swine flu. </p>

An "Octomom" On Every Block: Evaluating Your Local Fertility Clinic, Part Two

<p>I <a href="/blogs/octomom-was-just-start-how-evaluate-your-local-fertility-clinic-part-one">wrote</a> a few weeks ago about the coverage of <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/03/hospital-staff-fired… Suleman</a>, the unemployed woman with six kids who, with the help of a fertility doctor, ended up with eight more.</p><p>I talked about how you can use CDC data as a jumping-off point for stories about fertility practices in your area.</p>

Q&A with John Carey: Peeling back the label on cholesterol drugs

<p>John Carey, a 20-year veteran at <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/">BusinessWeek</a&gt;, wrote a story that set the pharmaceutical world on its ear in January 2008. Titled "<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_04/b4068052092994.htm">… Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good?</a>," the article systematically broke down the many myths behind the so-called "miracle cure" for heart disease: statins. Carey's story won an <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/awards-winners.php?Year=2008">award</a&…; from the Association of Health Care Journalists at its conference in Seattle.</p>

Q&A with Dr. John Abramson: Overdosed America

<p>I wrote a <a href="/blogs/130">post</a> earlier this week about a <a href="http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100952">Nieman Reports</a> article by <a href="http://www.townsendletter.com/June2008/nutmed0608.htm">Dr. John Abramson</a>, a clinical instructor at Harvard and outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical industry. After serving in the National Health Service Corps, Abramson worked as a family physician for 20 years in Massachusetts.

Q&A with Cassie Sauer: Hospitals and Washington State’s “Death with Dignity Act”

<p><a href="http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/initiatives/text/i1000.pdf">Initia… 1000</a>, the so-called "Death with Dignity Act," took effect in Washington state on March 5, after being approved by voters in November. And it has put hospitals in a strange position. Hospitals are considered the place where doctors and staff do everything in their power to keep a person alive. Now hospitals are being asked to allow their patients to kill themselves.