The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded its first AHCJ International Health Study Fellowships to four journalists who intend to pursue significant projects in the first half of 2019. The program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is meant to help veteran U.S.-based journalists compare elements of the U.S. health system with those of other countries.

The program for mid-career journalists is intended to give print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to study how one element of the U.S. health care system is handled in another country and to report on the differences. Fellows will be able to interview patients, health care providers and policymakers in the United States and abroad.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance to four journalists who intend to pursue significant projects in 2019. The program, in its ninth year, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care markets and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, has been awarded a grant of more than half a million dollars to strengthen the knowledge and skills of health care journalists.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation made the three-year grant of $509,400 to the Missouri-based center to assist in educating journalists in building their knowledge base in several areas.

Along with continuing the foundation’s support of a web-based core curriculum on health information technology, the grant will support a new curriculum on patient safety, curated resources for freelance journalists and an endowing sponsorship of the annual conference of AHCJ.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced the selection of a new class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows. The 10 journalists – supported through a grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust – will spend a week studying public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The AHCJ-directed fellowship program will include presentations, roundtable discussions and lab tours on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, obesity and other chronic diseases, vaccine safety, foodborne disease, influenza, antibiotic resistance, climate change and other topics.

A dozen journalists have been chosen for the 2018 class of the National Cancer Reporting Fellowships. AHCJ will be presenting the fellowships with expertise from the National Cancer Institute and others. The program is being supported by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

The fellows will spend four days on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to increase their understanding of and ability to report accurately on complex scientific findings, provide insight into the work of cancer researchers and to better localize cancer-related stories.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced a new pilot fellowship program to help veteran U.S.-based journalists compare elements of the U.S. health system with those of other countries. The AHCJ International Health Study Fellowships, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, provides for training as well as international field reporting assistance.

The program for mid-career journalists is intended to give print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to study how one element of the U.S. health care system is handled in another country and to report on the differences. Fellows will be able to interview patients, health care providers and policymakers both in the United States and abroad.

AHCJ President Ivan Oransky, M.D. reviews the organization's latest efforts to help health journalists report the news, including the debut of  hospitalfinances.org. There, you can, as I just did, look up your local hospital to find out its budget, how much charity care it provides, how much it pays its CEO, whether members of the board of directors have financial relationships with the hospital, and much, much more. You can even search for just those hospital officials who make more than $1 million, if that’s your bag.

The site is yet another way AHCJ is creating tools for our members, and increasing transparency.

The first lady of New York will keynote AHCJ’s Urban Health Journalism Workshop in October. Chirlane McCray, the founder of comprehensive mental health plan ThriveNYC, as well as the wife of Mayor Bill de Blasio, will talk about addressing behavioral health issues in the city.

The workshop will bring together journalists and health experts Oct. 18-19 in New York City to offer resources and story ideas about the health challenges facing 81 percent of the United States’ population.

Eleven journalists have been chosen for the fourth class of the AHCJ Fellowship on Comparative Effectiveness Research. The fellowship program was created with support from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help reporters and editors produce more accurate in-depth stories on medical research and how medical decisions are made.

The fellows will gather in Washington, D.C., the week of Oct. 7 for a series of presentations, roundtables, how-to database sessions and interactions with researchers.

Jeff Porter, AHCJ’s longtime special projects director, has been named director of education for the association and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

Porter, who takes a lead role in content planning for national conferences and workshops, also will play a larger role in AHCJ’s growing array of national fellowship programs.

“Jeff does a great job dealing with hundreds of speakers, instructors and moderators each year,” said Len Bruzzese, AHCJ’s executive director. “We plan to use his curriculum and data reporting skills in our fellowship programs and webcasts.”

The Association of Health Care Journalists will convene in Baltimore for Health Journalism 2019.

The organization's annual conference, which draws attendees from across the United States and several other countries, is slated for May 2-5, 2019, at the Hilton Baltimore. Serving as the local host team this year will be Johns Hopkins University, including its Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Nursing, and Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, has been awarded a three-year grant renewal of $450,000 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) to continue offering training and resources for journalists covering health issues.

The grant coincides with the 20^th anniversary of the AHCJ, which recently conducted Health Journalism 2018 in Phoenix, Ariz. The foundation was an endowing sponsor for that event.

AHCJ’s 10^th annual Rural Health Journalism Workshop brought journalists to North Carolina’s Research Triangle to hear from experts who offered resources and story ideas about the health challenges facing the United States’ 47 million rural residents.

Nearly 70 attended the all-day workshop, gaining a better understanding of what’s happening – or will be happening – in rural regions.

Carrie Feibel, health editor at KQED-San Francisco, joins five incumbents in being seated on the Association of Health Care Journalists’ 2018-19 board of directors.

Incumbents starting a new term include Julie Appleby, M.P.H., Kaiser Health News; Scott Hensley, NPR; Tony Leys, Des Moines Register; Ivan Oransky, M.D., NYU's Arthur Carter Journalism Institute; and Sabriya Rice, Dallas Morning News.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2018-19 class of the Regional Health Journalism Fellowship, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors across the United States.

The program, which focuses on different regions each year, is dedicated this year to journalists from the Mountain States region of Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah.

The Association of Health Care Journalists today unveiled hospitalfinances.org, a website that offers free, searchable financial information on nonprofit hospitals across the United States.

The aim is to make nonprofit hospital finances easier to access, search and analyze. This effort follows years of training by AHCJ to encourage journalists and the public to use nonprofit hospital filings and learn more about hospitals.

More than 700 people attended Health Journalism 2018, the 20^th anniversary celebration of the Association of Health Care Journalists.

Reporters, editors, producers, health policy experts, doctors and educators gathered in the scenic Phoenix desert to discuss emerging science, new trends in business, health information technology and more.

The conference kicked off with an engrossing and sometimes startling presentation about health in the Native American population.

Donald Warne, M.D., M.P.H., chair of the Department of Public Health in the College of Health Professions at North Dakota State University and the senior policy adviser to the Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board, described Third World health conditions on the country's reservations.

Six journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows. The fellowship program was created to increase reporters' access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health.

“We are honored to be working with the National Library of Medicine for a 10^th year,” said AHCJ Executive Director Len Bruzzese. “Our fellows get to tap into a wide range of resources and head home with story ideas and some powerful new tools to pursue them.”

The Association of Health Care Journalists has opened its 2018 call for candidates for the organization's board of directors. Each year, members in AHCJ’s professional category elect members for the association board of directors. (Associate and allied members cannot run for election or cast ballots.)

Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. Incumbent board members are allowed to run for re-election.

Service on the board is a serious commitment. It has commensurate rewards (but no pay). In addition to participating in two in-person board meetings each year and occasional conference calls, board members are responsible for making decisions about association policies and statements, as well as working with the executive director on training projects, financial matters and other efforts to achieve AHCJ’s strategic goals.

Investigations into what’s causing global obesity, who’s blocking regulation of addictive pain pills and who’s raking in billions of dollars from “liquid gold” urine samples were among the top winners in this year’s Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

The 2017 awards were announced today by the Association of Health Care Journalists. This year’s contest, which was the 14th, drew more than 300 entries across 10 categories.

This past fall was a busy one for AHCJ, as it always is. In the space of three months, we held four intensive fellowship programs. In Washington, D.C., we held training programs on using online resources effectively, on covering comparative effectiveness research (CER), and on the latest in cancer research and treatment. In Atlanta, we held a program on public health while visiting two campuses of the CDC.

We also organized and produced the global health track at the 10th World Conference of Science Journalists in San Francisco. AHCJ is a member organiza­tion of the World Federation of Science Journalists, which met for the first time in the United States.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced an enhanced partnership with global research and learning company John Wiley and Sons to provide professional journalists with access to the full collection of journals published on Wiley Online Library.  Wiley publishes on behalf of many of the world’s leading organizations dedicated to advancing health science. AHCJ members will be able to access 6 million articles from more than 1,500 journals, including Cochrane Library, Cancer, the Journal of the American Heart Association, and more. 

The Association of Health Care Journalists welcomes experienced journalist Cynthia Craft to its full-time staff in a new position, director of engagement.

She will play a key role in daily operations of the association including membership, outreach efforts and online resources.

Craft joins the organization after an extensive career in daily journalism, including a decade on the health care beat.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance to five journalists who intend to pursue significant projects in 2018. The program, in its eighth year, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care markets and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is now accepting entries in the 2017 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

Since 2004, the contest has recognized the best health reporting in print, broadcast and online media across 11 categories. The program was created by journalists for journalists and is not influenced or funded by commercial or special-interest groups.

Entries can include a wide range of health coverage including public health, consumer health, medical research, the business of health care and health ethics.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced the selection of a new class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows.

The 11 journalists – supported through a grant from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust – will spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

AHCJ is excited to announce an offer for significantly discounted access to LexisNexis for association members. The offer, made possible in partnership with the Contently Foundation [now The Hatch Institute], a nonprofit organization for investigative reporting, will be of particular interest to AHCJ’s freelance members.

LexisNexis is a vital resource for all types of journalists and writers, but it's particularly valuable for those covering health care in that it contains some 250 industry publications, including the American Journal of Law & Medicine, The American Journal of Surgery, The Lancet, Biotech Business, Modern Healthcare and Occupational Health.

The AHCJ board of directors has elected a new set of officers for 2017-19.

Ivan Oransky, M.D., distinguished writer in residence at New York University’s Carter Journalism Institute and editor at large for MedPage Today was named president; Felice J. Freyer of The Boston Globe was named vice president; Gideon Gil of Stat was named treasurer; and Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News will remain as secretary. Karl Stark of The Philadelphia Inquirer is the immediate past president, having served two two-year terms chairing the board.

A dozen journalists have been chosen for the 2017 class of the National Cancer Reporting Fellowships. AHCJ will be presenting the fellowships with expertise from the National Cancer Institute and others. The program is being supported by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.

The fellows will spend four days on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to increase their understanding of and ability to report accurately on complex scientific findings, provide insight into the work of cancer researchers and to better localize cancer-related stories.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has called on the nation’s top health officials to face questions about the Trump administration’s health initiatives.

In a Sept. 20 letter, AHCJ President Ivan Oransky asked Dr. Tom Price, health and human services secretary, and Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to hold a press conference – something that has yet to occur seven months into their tenure.  Neither has yet responded.

The Association of Health Care Journalists will convene in Phoenix for Health Journalism 2018.

The organization's annual conference is slated for April 12-15, 2018, at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort.

Ten journalists have been chosen for the third class of the AHCJ Fellowship on Comparative Effectiveness Research.

The fellowship program was created with support from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help reporters and editors produce more accurate in-depth stories on medical research and how medical decisions are made.

Six journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows. The fellowship program was created to increase reporters' access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health.

Their visit to the NIH campus, scheduled for the week of Sept. 24, will include hands-on workshops about how to use and get the most from several government research databases, such as PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov and ToxNet. Fellows also will meet with senior NLM and NIH researchers and officials for exclusive informational sessions.

AHCJ has submitted a statement to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services supporting the agency’s proposal to open hospital inspection reports to the public.

The proposed rule change applies to inspections by private accrediting organizations, which are often kept secret, even though they detail patient safety shortcomings of potential interest to the public.

The program, which changes regions each year, will focus this year on journalists from the Mid-Atlantic region, namely Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Delaware, Kentucky and West Virginia. The program begins in the next month.

Past classes of fellows have come from the northern Midwest and Plains, the Southeast, the West Coast, the South Central United States and the Great Lakes.

AHCJ’s Rural Health Journalism Workshop brought journalists from across the United States to Cincinnati to hear from experts who focus on the health challenges facing the nation's 46 million rural residents.

Almost 60 attendees of the ninth annual workshop gained a better understanding of what’s happening – or will be happening – in rural regions, and journalists returned to work with dozens of story ideas.

Marlene Harris-Taylor, a reporter and producer for WVIZ/PBS Ideastream, will join the board of directors for the Association of Health Care Journalists. She and incumbents Jeanne Erdmann, a Missouri-based freelancer; Felice Freyer, The Boston Globe; Gideon Gil, Stat; Maryn McKenna, an Atlanta-based freelancer; and Karl Stark, The Philadelphia Inquirer; will start two-year terms on July 1.

The six join the board members elected in last year’s voting: Julie Appleby, M.P.H., of Kaiser Health News; Scott Hensley, of NPR; Tony Leys, of the Des Moines Register; Ivan Oransky, M.D., of New York University and Retraction Watch; Sabriya Rice, of The Dallas Morning News; and Charlotte Sutton, of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Nearly 700 people attended Health Journalism 2017 in Orlando in April for sessions covering everything from the latest on health reform to strategies for freelance journalists to keep their careers fresh.

The annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists convened researchers, health policy experts, physicians and journalists for the April 20-23 event.

The Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, has been awarded a grant of nearly $1.3 million to provide educational opportunities and resources for journalists on health care issues that result in more knowledgeable reporters and better, more trustworthy, stories for the public.

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust made the three-year grant of $1,291,452 to the Missouri-based center to boost the competency of the U.S. health journalist corps and to increase the number of other journalists capable of tackling stories that serve the general public in producing accurate and actionable information.

Each year, members in AHCJ’s professional category elect members for the association board of directors. (Associate and allied members cannot run for election or cast ballots.)

Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. Incumbent board members are allowed to run for re-election.

Service on the board is a serious commitment. It has commensurate rewards (but no pay). In addition to participating in two in-person board meetings each year and occasional conference calls, board members are responsible for making decisions about association policies and statements, as well as working with the executive director on training projects, financial matters and other efforts to achieve AHCJ’s strategic goals.

In-depth investigations into heroin and pain-pill abuse drew several top awards in this year’s Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

The 2016 awards, announced today by the Association of Health Care Journalists, recognize the best health reporting in 11 categories. This year, the contest’s 13th, drew nearly 400 entries.

Winning entries included investigations into inflated prescription-drug prices, agricultural practices fueling antibiotic resistance, and poor oversight of dangerous drug interactions.

You may have heard. New leaders were elected to represent us in Washington, D.C. And they are keen to gut the Affordable Care Act.

And just as quickly, there was a blog post on healthjournalism.org about how that gutting will go down and what re­porters need to know to report on it. The majority in the narrowly divided Senate will use a legislative tactic called reconcili­ation, because it removes the threat of a filibuster, noted AHCJ contributor Sarah Ferris who covered health in Congress for The Hill.

This little interchange is just a taste of how AHCJ plans to be helpful over the next year and beyond. Our goal is to get our members the tips and training they need to do their jobs in real time, for au­diences online, over the air and in print.

The center of the Sunshine State will host Health Journalism 2017, AHCJ’s annual conference April 20-23.

Hundreds of journalists will attend the conference at the Rosen Centre Ho­tel in Orlando, filling their schedules with field trips, panels, workshops and more. They’ll have access to world-class experts, skill-building events and firsthand looks at research and clinical sites.

The conference will help reporters, editors and producers cover the latest in medical research, public health issues, the business of health care, health policy mat­ters, and journalism. Freelance members can meet face to face with editors during the popular PitchFest.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, along with more than 80 other organizations committed to the First Amendment right of freedom of speech and the press, is alarmed by efforts by the Trump administration to demonize the media and undermine its ability to inform the public about official actions and policies. In a joint statement released today, the groups stress that the administration’s attacks on the press pose a threat to American democracy.

The statement cites numerous attempts by the administration to penalize and intimidate the press for coverage the president dislikes, including refusing to answer questions from certain reporters, falsely charging the media with cover-ups and manipulation of news, and denying certain media outlets access to press briefings.

The Association of Health Care Journalists and 60 other journalism organizations have requested a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence to discuss access to government.

This letter is the latest among several that were sent to the Obama administration, since at least 2013, regarding concerns about White House restrictions on photographers, transparency and public information officer restrictions.

“We urge you to publicly affirm your commitment to transparency, to issue an executive order prohibiting the restrictive public information policies that have been the status quo, and to engage in a public discussion with us about the Trump administration’s commitment to the free flow of information from the White House and all federal government, to the American people,” the latest letter states.

The groups hope that together, they and the Trump administration can improve the lines of communication between the White House and the press.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has agreed to collaborate on the curriculum for the 10^th World Conference of Science Journalists slated for fall 2017 in San Francisco.

AHCJ will partner with the National Association of Science Writers and the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing on programming for the global event, being held in the United States for the first time. All three organizations are affiliated with the World Federation of Science Journalists, which connects science, health, environment and technology writers around the world.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance to five journalists who intend to pursue significant projects in 2017. The program, in its seventh year, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care markets and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The fellowship program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is intended to give experienced print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to concentrate on the performance of health care systems – or significant parts of those systems – locally, regionally or nationally. The fellows are able to examine policies, practices and outcomes, as well as the roles of various stakeholders.

Fourteen journalists have been chosen for the inaugural class of the National Cancer Reporting Fellowships. The fellowship program was created as a collaboration between the National Cancer Institute and the Association of Health Care Journalists.

The fellows will spend four days on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to increase their understanding of and ability to report accurately on complex scientific findings, provide insight into the work of cancer researchers and to better localize cancer-related stories.

Seven journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows.

Their visit to the NIH campus, scheduled for the week of Sept. 25, will include hands-on workshops about how to use and get the most from several government research databases, such as PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov and ToxNet.

Fellows also will meet with senior NLM and NIH researchers and officials for exclusive informational sessions.

Ten journalists have been chosen for the second class of the AHCJ Fellowship on Comparative Effectiveness Research. The fellowship program was created with support from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help reporters and editors produce more accurate in-depth stories on medical research and how medical decisions are made.

The fellows will gather in Washington, D.C., the week of Sept. 11 for a series of presentations, roundtables, how-to database sessions and interactions with researchers.

Orlando will be the site of Health Journalism 2017, the Association of Health Care Journalists has announced.

The annual conference of AHCJ is slated for April 20-23, 2017, at the Rosen Centre Hotel. The conference, which usually draws 700-800 attendees, will feature three and a half days of workshops, panel sessions, roundtables and field trips covering the latest topics in medical science, health policy, public health, medical education, consumer health and the business of health care. Sessions focus on the special needs of reporters, editors and producers as they attempt to cover these topic areas for their audiences.

It was great to see so many talented journalists at Health Journalism 2016 in Cleveland. More than 600 people showed up to take in speakers like U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and such sights as Mick Jagger’s amazingly skinny outfits in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The attendance at AHCJ’s conferences is more than triple what it was a decade ago.

Our group continues to grow in resources and members despite the painful disruption in the news industry. Partly it’s because we are riding the wave of a demographic tsunami. Remember the movie “The Graduate” in which an in-the-know adult tells Dustin Hoffman the future is in plastics. Well, now it would be health care.

Another reason for our growth is that this organization rests on the shoulders of members with great vision and selflessness.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2016-17 class of the Regional Health Journalism Fellowship, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors across the United States.

The program, which changes regions each year, will focus this year on journalists from the Great Lakes region, namely Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. The program begins in the next month. Past classes of fellows have come from the northern Midwest and Plains, the Southeast, the West Coast and the South Central United States.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has awarded a three-year $432,000 grant to the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, to support a national fellowship program for local health reporters, editors and producers.

The funding will allow the continuation – and expansion – of the AHCJ Regional Health Journalism Fellowships, an intense program that has trained scores of journalists from across the country.

This yearlong program focuses on four to six states in a single region at a time. Ten to 12 journalists are competitively selected from that year’s region and provided with customized training aimed at educating them on critical health and health care issues to increase their competency in providing meaningful coverage. It also focuses on motivating them to increase and improve their coverage of these issues, particularly on the local or state level.

The Association of Health Care Journalists and the National Cancer Institute announced they will collaborate this year to present the first National Cancer Reporting Fellowships.

Up to 15 journalists will be selected to spend four days on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., to increase their understanding of and ability to report accurately on complex scientific findings, provide insight into the work of cancer researchers and to better localize cancer-related stories.

Sabriya Rice, a health reporter and producer, joined five incumbents in being seated on the Association of Health Care Journalists’ 2016-17 board of directors.

Incumbents starting a new term include Julie Appleby, M.P.H.; Scott Hensley; Tony Leys; Ivan Oransky, M.D., and Charlotte Sutton.

The first survey to focus on the newsgathering experiences of health care journalists has found that the federal government often blocks access to information, supporting assertions that the Obama administration has failed to keep its promise of transparency.

“This survey shines a light on the ways that government officials attempt to wall off their work from public view,” said Karl Stark, the association’s president and assistant managing editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

“Its findings will both strengthen and inform AHCJ’s longstanding advocacy for government openness.”

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded a three-year $230,000 grant to the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists.

The funding will support the association’s annual conference, a web-based reporting curriculum on health information technology and a regional journalism workshop on health IT.

Each year, members in AHCJ’s professional category elect members for the association board of directors. (Associate and allied members cannot run for election or cast ballots.)

Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. Incumbent board members are allowed to run for re-election.

Service on the board is a serious commitment. It has commensurate rewards (but no pay). In addition to participating in two in-person board meetings each year and occasional conference calls, board members are responsible for making decisions about association policies and statements, as well as working with the executive director on training projects, financial matters and other efforts to achieve AHCJ’s strategic goals.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has awarded a three-year $240,000 grant to the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists.

The funding will continue to support the association’s annual conference and a web-based reporting curriculum on social determinants of health and disparities.

More than 600 attendees gathered for Health Journalism 2016, hearing from the U.S. surgeon general, the chief medical official for Veterans Affairs, and city health commissioners after a year of cities facing crises.

The annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists ran April 7-10 in Cleveland.

Conference attendees heard from – and interacted with – top-notch researchers, well-regarded educators, effective clinicians, prize-winning journalists and authors, and many more experts on a vast array of health topics.

AHCJ members will now get special access to data tools, thanks to an agreement the organization has made with Carevoyance, a company that provides health care data from public and private data sources.

This new member benefit allows AHCJ members to use data – at no cost – to enhance their health reporting with detailed information about health care providers. AHCJ is working with Carevoyance to provide data covering hospitals, physicians, laboratories and other providers.

More than 600 attendees will gather for Health Journalism 2016, where they will hear from the U.S. surgeon general, the chief medical official for Veterans Affairs and NFL notables. The annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists is set for April 7-10 in Cleveland.

As always, conference attendees will hear from – and interact with – top-notch researchers, well-regarded educators, effective clinicians, prize-winning journalists and authors and many more experts on a vast array of health topics.

Hundreds of people with disabilities sent to group homes against their will, troubles in nursing homes, and an examination of infant mortality rates that rival those in some Third World countries were among the stories winning top honors in this year’s Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

Also winning awards were pieces that found inconsistent standards for home care in Ontario, injuries sidelining nurses across the United States and a radio feature that followed a young man with a failing liver.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, with the support of several health foundations, is offering a number of fellowships to help journalists and journalism students attend Health Journalism 2016, the organization’s annual conference.

Fellowships are available for journalists in California, Colorado, Missouri, Rhode Island, New York, college journalism students and instructors, journalists in the ethnic media, those covering health in rural areas and journalists on non-health beats.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will recognize membership in the Association of Health Care Journalists as sufficient credential for any media briefing or press event sponsored by HHS or its agencies.

The HHS recognition provides a powerful lever for AHCJ members, especially freelancers, when they encounter obstacles to obtaining credentials at medical society and scientific meetings. Now members can point out that the federal government considers AHCJ membership adequate proof of a reporter’s legitimacy.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is now accepting entries in the 2015 Awards for Excellent in Health Care Journalism.

Since 2004, the contest has recognized the best health reporting in print, broadcast and online media across 11 categories. The program was created by journalists for journalists and is not influenced or funded by commercial or special-interest groups.

Entries can include a wide range of health coverage including public health, consumer health, medical research, the business of health care and health ethics.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance to five journalists who intend to pursue significant projects in 2016. The program, in its sixth year, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care markets and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The fellowship program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is intended to give experienced print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to concentrate on the performance of health care systems – or significant parts of those systems – locally, regionally or nationally. The fellows are able to examine policies, practices and outcomes, as well as the roles of various stakeholders.

More than 100 journalists from across the United States came to the nation’s capital Oct. 29-30 to hone their evidence-based skills in evaluating and reporting on medical research.

AHCJ’s Journalism Workshop on Evidence-Based Medicine featured a roster of seasoned health journalists, medical research experts and statistical mavens, allowing attendees to leave with story ideas and resources to pursue stories.

Twelve journalists have been chosen for the inaugural class of the AHCJ Fellowship on Comparative Effectiveness Research.

The fellowship program was created with support from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute to help reporters and editors produce more accurate in-depth stories on medical research and how medical decisions are made.

Nine journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows.

The fellowship program was created to increase reporters' access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health. 

The fellows were selected from dozens of qualified applicants.

Karl Stark, president of AHCJ's board of directors, shares highlights from Health Journalism 2015 and offers an update on the association's latest news and developments.

This column first appeared in the Summer 2015 issue of HealthBeat.

Jeanne Erdmann and Mary Shedden

Jeanne Erdmann, an independent journalist based in Missouri, and Mary Shedden, editor of Health News Florida, join four incumbents in being seated on the Association of Health Care Journalists' 2015-16 board of directors.

Incumbents starting a new two-year term include AHCJ President Karl Stark, of The Philadelphia Inquirer; AHCJ Treasurer Felice J. Freyer, of The Boston Globe; Gideon Gil, of The Boston Globe; and Maryn McKenna, an Atlanta-based independent journalist.

Medicare pays doctors and other providers virtually everywhere in the United States, amounting to more than $70 billion in 2013, for medical exams, X-rays, injections and a host of other treatments and procedures. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services just released detailed payment data covering 2013. 

As it did last year, AHCJ has made the updated data more accessible for its members. Members can follow this link to download Microsoft Excel files by state for both years - 2012 and 2013. The page includes links to the actual files, plus links to documentation, a rundown of caveats and tips, and descriptions of the each spreadsheet column.

Nearly 700 people attended Health Journalism 2015, the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists. The gathering, in California’s Silicon Valley in late April, provided journalists with expert speakers and panels on everything from hospital quality to a press briefing with the secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

In a kickoff speech that many attendees talked about throughout the conference, Stanford physician and author Abraham Verghese, M.D., offered an eloquent description about the importance of how doctors care for patients.

The Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, has been awarded a three-year grant of $450,000 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to continue offering training and resources for journalists covering health issues.

Soaring drug prices that make even copays unaffordable for many, an unchecked rise in robotic surgery, financial abuse revealed using previously secret Medicare data, and the health ramifications of the boom in hydraulic fracturing for oil were among the top winners of this year’s Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

The 2014 awards, announced today by the Association of Health Care Journalists, recognize the best health reporting in 11 categories (entries in the category for business stories from small outlets were moved to other categories). 

This year, the contest’s 11th, had reporters compete across mediums in topic area categories, including public health, business and health policy. More than 420 entries were received.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded five journalists AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance for work to be completed in 2015. The program, in its fifth year, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care markets and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The fellowship program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is intended to give experienced print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to concentrate on the performance of health care systems – or significant parts of those systems – locally, regionally or nationally. The fellows are able to examine policies, practices and outcomes, as well as the roles of various stakeholders.

Eight journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows. The fellowship program was created to increase reporters' access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health.

Their visit to the NIH campus, scheduled for Sept. 7-11, will include hands-on workshops about how to use and get the most from several government research databases, such as PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov and ToxNet. Fellows also will meet with senior NLM and NIH researchers and officials for exclusive informational sessions.

The Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, has been awarded a grant of $200,000 to continue a fellowship program that helps journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care markets and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance were launched in 2010.

The program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, a New York-based private foundation, allows experienced print, broadcast and online reporters to pursue significant reporting projects over a year’s time related to the U.S. health care system.

Charlotte Sutton, senior editor/health and politics for the Tampa Bay Times, and Tony Leys, a staff writer for the Des Moines Register, join four incumbents in being seated on the Association of Health Care Journalists' 2014-15 board of directors.

Incumbents starting a new two-year term include AHCJ Vice President Ivan Oransky, M.D., of MedPage Today in New York; AHCJ Secretary Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News in Washington, D.C., Scott Hensley of NPR in Washington, D.C., and Irene Wielawski, an independent journalist in Pound Ridge, N.Y.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2014-15 class of the Regional Health Journalism Fellowship, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors across the United States.

If you didn’t get to hear Rhiannon Meyers describe her diabetes project at Health Journalism 2014 in Denver, you missed her take on a real catty whompus state of affairs, as they say in Texas.

Diabetes is so rampant in Corpus Christi, Rhiannon said, that the Dartmouth Atlas ranked the city No. 1 in the nation for below-the-knee amputations. A national magazine even dubbed the town “Corpulent Christi” for its Texas-sized waist lines. Rhiannon, an investigative reporter covering health care part time at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, proposed a yearlong project for 2013 that was chosen for support by AHCJ’s Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance.

The fellowship – which includes travel and research support, mentoring and other resources – enabled Rhiannon to steep herself in issues surrounding diabetes, both locally and nationally. She learned what questions to ask and where to go for data. “AHCJ helped me bust out of the local silo,” she said. “I heard more from readers during that series than I have in my entire career.”

Image by FutUndBeidl via Flickr.

Each year, members in AHCJ’s professional category elect members for the association board of directors. (Associate and allied members cannot run for election or cast ballots.)

Board members take on committee duties and contribute to association activities, including fundraising, advocacy, helping plan sessions at training events, membership outreach and writing/editing contributions.

They may be asked to play a role in other association projects that arise. They also are asked to show their support through an annual donation to the Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, although there is no minimum required.

AHCJ’s first Mountain States conference – Health Journalism 2014 – brought journalists from across the United States and beyond to Denver in March. With nearly 700 attendees, the conference included field trips, workshops, a special end-of-life track, spotlight speakers and dozens of panels.

Two of the conference’s highlights were talks by two experts who continue to impact the world of health care. During the conference kickoff event, Louis Sullivan, M.D., a former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, addressed the conference after a lively talk from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, who discussed the state’s legalization of marijuana.

An investigation that found criminals running diet supplement companies, a series revealing the failure of hospitals to provide life-saving newborn screening tests and an examination of efforts to prevent childhood deaths in Africa and Asia were among the top winners of this year’s Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

First-place awards also went to articles that looked at the potential dangers of acetaminophen, the reasons behind a high suicide rate in Montana and what happens to veterans who lose their health benefits when they are discharged for minor offenses.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has rolled out another Core Curriculum topic on its website. “Social determinants and disparities” is the sixth in a series of core topic subject areas making up the curriculum. It is one of at least a dozen key subject areas the organization believes today’s health journalists will need to master to cover the beat well.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded five journalists AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance. The program, in its fourth year, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care markets and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The fellowship program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is intended to give experienced print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to concentrate on the performance of health care systems – or significant parts of those systems – locally, regionally or nationally. The fellows are able to examine policies, practices and outcomes, as well as the roles of various stakeholders.

AHCJ has called on the federal government to release data about enrollment in the federal health insurance exchange as soon as the numbers are tabulated.

In a letter sent on Oct. 10, 2013, to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services, and Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, AHCJ president Karl Stark asks for daily or weekly updates, rather than the monthly updates the administration has planned. 

The Association of Health Care Journalists has rolled out another Core Curriculum topic on its website. “Insurance” is the fifth in a series of core topic subject areas making up the curriculum. It is one of at least a dozen key subject areas the organization believes today’s health journalists will need to master to cover the beat well.

“Understanding health insurance in the United States has just gotten tougher,” said Len Bruzzese, executive director of AHCJ and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. “Our mix of employer-based, federally backed and state-supported systems was already confusing for many. Now, the implementation of health reform means reporters need an even firmer grasp on what’s out there so they can assist the public.”

Entries for the 2013 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism are now being accepted. The awards recognize the best health reporting in print, broadcast and online media across 12 categories.

Those categories are topic-based, with entries competing head-to-head no matter whether they appeared in magazines, newspapers, trade publications or on radio or television stations or websites, although some of the categories are divided by size of outlet.

“This contest showcases the high level of reporting being done nationally and around the world on vital health and health policy issues,” said Julie Appleby, AHCJ’s contest chair and a senior correspondent at Kaiser Health News, a nonprofit news service based in Washington, D.C.

The AHCJ board of directors elected a new set of officers for 2013-15 to take their seats this week.

Karl Stark of The Philadelphia Inquirer was named president, Ivan Oransky of MedPage Today was named vice president, Felice J. Freyer of The Providence Journal was named treasurer and Julie Appleby of Kaiser Health News was named secretary. Charles Ornstein of ProPublica, and board president for the past four years, remains on the board. He did not seek another officer position.

Eight journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows. The fellowship program was created to increase reporters' access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health.

Six incumbents won re-election to the Association of Health Care Journalists' 2013-14 board of directors.

The re-elected board members are Felice J. Freyer of The Providence (R.I.) Journal; Gideon Gil of The Boston Globe; Carla K. Johnson of The Associated Press; Maryn McKenna, an independent journalist based in Atlanta; Charles Ornstein of ProPublica and Karl Stark of The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2013-14 class of the Regional Health Journalism Fellowship, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors across the United States.

The program, which changes regions each year, will focus this year on journalists from the Western United States, namely Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. The program begins in July. The first class of fellows came from the northern Midwest and Plains. The second class of fellows, which is just completing its year of training opportunities, came from the Southeast.

Each year, members in AHCJ’s professional category elect members for the association board of directors. Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. The call for candidates will open on June 10 and will remain open until July 12. Elections will be conducted the week of July 15.

Find out more about being a board member and how to declare your candidacy.

Health Journalism 2014, the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists, will take place in Denver next year, AHCJ has announced.

The conference, which has drawn between 600 and 800 attendees in each of the past three years, will take place March 27-30, 2014, at the Grand Hyatt Denver. The hotel is located just a block from Denver’s popular 16^th Street pedestrian mall and features views of the vibrant downtown and the majestic Rocky Mountains.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, along with six other journalism and open-government groups, has called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to release to the public vital information about the multibillion-dollar food stamps program.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has hired reporting professional Liz Seegert as the new topic champion for its core curriculum efforts on aging.

Seegert’s reporting and writing background spans more than 25 years in print, broadcast, and digital media, covering consumer and professional health topics. She takes over from founding topic leader Judith Graham, who built the foundation of the site, and who now writes for The New York Times’ blog The New Old Age.

The pages offer a central and cataloged collection of materials on the topic, with the practical daily guidance of a lead editor who specializes in the topic. Each specialty topic page includes glossaries, key concepts, reporting tip sheets, weekly blog items, first-person stories by fellow journalists, videos, data and more. The topic home page serves as a launch pad to more resources on the healthjournalism.org site and elsewhere.

A record crowd attending Health Journalism 2013 saw AHCJ unveil its own searchable news application of hospital inspection reports, heard experts in virtually every field, and marked the group’s 15^th anniversary.

The annual event drew nearly 800 attendees to the four-day gathering in Boston. The conference featured panel discussions, workshops, field trips, showcase speakers and a news briefing. The sessions covered the medical research, health care policy, clinical practice, public health, consumer health and the business of health care.

The Association of Health Care Journalists today launched hospitalinspections.org, a free, searchable news application that compiles thousands of federal inspection reports for hospitals around the nation since January 2011.

The move follows years of advocacy by AHCJ urging the government to release the deficiency reports in an electronic format. Until now, reporters and the public had to file Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to obtain the documents, a process fraught with delays that can stymie timely public knowledge of problems at hospitals.

An investigation revealing concerns about unnecessary treatments by private dental firms – along with stories showcasing the enormous financial toll of medical care and the cost of dying – were among the top winners of this year's Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

First-place awards also went to a series that investigated long-forgotten lead factories and the dangers they pose to nearby residents, coverage of the compounding pharmacy linked to the national outbreak of fungal meningitis, the toll obesity is taking on residents of one state and the effect of violence against those living with HIV.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has been accepted into the World Federation of Science Journalists, a nonprofit organization of 44 groups dedicated to increasing public understanding of science and technology through the mass media.

“The international segment of our membership continues to grow. We feel it makes sense to work with other established international journalism groups where possible to meet the needs of these reporters, editors and producers,” AHCJ Executive Director Len Bruzzese explained.

AHCJ leaders expect WFSJ membership will increase networking potential for AHCJ members in both reporting and career development.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has rolled out another Core Curriculum topic on its website. “Covering Medical Studies” is the fourth in a series of core topic subject areas making up the curriculum. It is one of at least a dozen key subject areas the organization believes today’s health journalists will need to master to cover the beat well.

“Journalists are inundated daily with the latest medical studies,” said Len Bruzzese, executive director of AHCJ and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. “AHCJ has long promoted the need to understand the essential building blocks of covering medical studies. At the same time, we have tried to teach that such coverage comes with a certain responsibility to keep this information in context. This core topic content will serve both demands.”

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded five journalists AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance. The program, in its third year, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care markets and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The fellowship program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is intended to give experienced print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to concentrate on the performance of health care systems – or significant parts of those systems – locally, regionally or nationally. The fellows are able to examine policies, practices and outcomes, as well as the roles of various stakeholders.

Entries for the 2012 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism are now being accepted.

Following on changes begun last year, the contest retains its topic-based categories, where entries compete head-to-head no matter whether they appeared in magazines, newspapers, trade publications or on radio or television stations or websites.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has rolled out another Core Curriculum topic on its website. “Oral health” is the third in a series of core topic subject areas making up the curriculum. It is one of at least a dozen key subject areas the organization believes today’s health journalists will need to master to cover the beat well.

Each specialty topic page includes glossaries, key concepts, reporting tip sheets, weekly blog items, first-person stories by fellow journalists, videos, data and more. The topic home page serves as a launch pad to more resources on the healthjournalism.org site and elsewhere.

Six journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows. The fellowship program was created to increase reporters' access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health.

Their visit to the NIH campus, scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 4, will include hands-on workshops about how to use and get the most from several government research databases, such as PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov and ToxNet. Fellows also will meet with senior NLM and NIH researchers and officials for exclusive informational sessions.

Interested in pursuing a project on patient safety and quality care? Efforts to address racial disparities in infant mortality? The power hospitals or insurers wield in your market? What hospital or insurance company consolidation will mean? How well a hospital system tracks medical errors? How a doctor shortage is affecting care in a region's community health clinics? Differences between U.S. states in mandated coverage for autism treatment?

Receive financial assistance and a fellowship award to pursue health journalism projects of significance to your audience.

Scott Hensley, NPR’s Shots blog writer and editor, joins five incumbents in being seated on the Association of Health Care Journalists' 2012-13 board of directors.

Incumbents starting a new two-year term include AHCJ Secretary Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News; AHCJ Treasurer Ivan Oransky, M.D., Reuters Health; Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News; Andy Miller, Georgia Health News; and Irene Wielawski, independent journalist. Immediate Past President Trudy Lieberman, a longtime board member and contributing editor for Columbia Journalism Review, chose not to run for re-election.

Following a New York Times report that revealed the federal government secretly tracked communication sent by FDA scientists to “members of Congress, lawyers, labor officials, journalists and even President Obama,” the Association of Health Care Journalists has expressed alarm at the “Orwellian practices” in a letter sent to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

This column, by AHCJ President Charles Ornstein, originally appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of HeatlhBeat.

After months of suspense, the Afford­able Care Act survived its day in court.

Within minutes of the Supreme Court’s decision, elected officials and po­litical candidates unleashed sound bites and slogans to try to win the message wars. Pundits and prognosticators wasted little time talking about whether the de­cision would change the outcome of this year’s presidential race.

If we were all political reporters, we would spend the next five months duti­fully chronicling this silly horse race. But for those covering health, the task is more nuanced and difficult.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2012-13 class of the Regional Health Journalism Fellowship, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors across the United States.

The program, which changes regions each year, will focus this year on journalists from the Southeastern United States, namely Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. The inaugural class of fellows, which just completed its year of training opportunities, came from the northern Midwest and Plains.

Each year, members in AHCJ’s “professional” category elect members for the association board of directors. (Associate and allied members cannot run for election or cast ballots.)

Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. Incumbent board members are allowed to run for re-election.

AHCJ’s fifth Rural Health Journalism Workshop brought more than 50 people to hear speakers to discuss hunger and health, recruiting doctors and the growth of non-traditional health care professionals, the health status of children, the business of health, and health emergencies – all in a rural theme.

Health Journalism 2013, the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists, will take place in Boston next year, AHCJ has announced.

The conference, which has drawn more than 600 attendees in each of the last two years, will take place March 14-17, 2013, at the Seaport Boston Hotel and the adjacent Seaport World Trade Center. The hotel and conference center are located on the Boston waterfront in the growing Seaport District.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has called upon The Joint Commission to make public its hospital accreditation surveys and complaint reports.

In a letter to the agency sent last week (PDF), AHCJ president Charles Ornstein noted that some consumers can obtain hospital inspection reports while others cannot, depending on where they live and which organization or regulator did the survey.

A touching narrative about a terminally ill man’s choices at the end of life – along with stories showcasing how ethnic communities are coping with diabetes and an investigation into one doctor’s trail of malpractice allegations – were among the top winners of this year’s Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

First-place awards also went to stories detailing risks at hospitals – including a higher-than-average rate of violence against workers – and a series uncovering problems with state and federal oversight of private ambulance services in Houston.

The 2011 awards, announced today by the Association of Health Care Journalists, recognize the best health reporting in 10 categories.

In November, Department of Health and Human Services held a series of “listening sessions” in 10 cities to gather input on an important aspect of the Affordable Care Act. These meetings were publicized among thousands of invited “stakeholders,” and anyone who heard by word of mouth could also attend.

But apparently no media advisories went out and, worse, reporters who happened to learn about the meetings were barred from attending.  The meetings were not transcribed or recorded.

The Association of Health Care Journalists worked with the HHS media office to find out what had happened and to express its concerns. As a result HHS has agreed to make it a policy that public meetings are open to the media.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has launched an effort to improve reporters’ access to the data and information released at medical society meetings.

These meetings are often the world’s first look at research findings and advances in medical science. But the policies of some medical societies can make it hard for reporters to do their jobs well.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should create an easily usable and searchable database when it publishes information from drug and device makers about payments to physicians, according to comments (PDF) submitted by the Association of Health Care Journalists  on proposed rules for carrying out the Physician Payment Sunshine Act.

The act will open a window on financial relationships between physicians and industry. Starting in 2013, pharmaceutical and device manufacturers must report to CMS any “transfer of value” worth more than $10 to a physician, and CMS will post the information online.

AHCJ is supporting a new effort to require broadcasters to report their funding sources online, because that would make it easier for people to recognize infomercials that masquerade as news.

The practice of broadcasting reports that, unbeknownst to viewers or listeners, are paid for by hospitals or other health-care organizations has long been a concern. For example, in 2010 a health reporter for a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles appeared in a segment interviewing a hospital’s chief medical officer – paid for by that hospital. The segment looked like news but the hospital considered it advertising. Viewers were left to guess.

Now, the Federal Communications Commission is proposing rules requiring that sponsorships be posted online in a searchable database. Currently, such information is available only to people who go to the station and ask to review paper files.

Congress should not roll back public access to taxpayer-funded research reports, AHCJ wrote in a letter to members of Congress.

AHCJ is opposing the Research Works Act (H.R. 3699), which would remove the public’s access to medical journal articles about publicly funded research. They are currently available for free to the public no more than 12 months after their publication in a medical journal.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has rolled out another Core Curriculum topic on its website. “Aging” is the second in a series of core topic subject areas making up the curriculum. Aging is one of at least a dozen key subject areas the organization believes today’s health journalists will need to master to cover the beat well.

Colorado-based writer Judith Graham is AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. She produces reporting guides, seeks out reliable resources, assigns stories and blogs regularly. She works with Pia Christensen, AHCJ’s managing editor/online services, to find the latest material, edit contributions and make the site as easy to navigate as possible.

The Association of Health Care Journalists and five other journalism organizations asked federal health officials this week to specify how they plan to enforce new rules governing access to the public version of the National Practitioner Data Bank.

In a letter to Mary Wakefield, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, the groups continued to express disappointment in the agency’s restrictions on the data bank’s Public Use File. In the past, reporters have used the file to expose faulty oversight of doctors by state medical boards.

Responding to a report that federal health officials met in private with Wall Street investors, AHCJ leadership sent a letter to the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services objecting to the selective release of information to stakeholder groups.

AHCJ’s letter, signed by president Charles Ornstein, states, “We feel strongly that journalists should receive information from CMS no later than other groups. If guidance or previews are provided to special interest groups, it also should be provided to journalists, who inform the public.”

The Association of Health Care Journalists has rolled out the first of its new Core Curriculum topics – the implementation of health reform – is one of at least a dozen key subject areas the organization believes today’s health journalists will need to master to cover the beat well.

While the AHCJ website already provides some of the best education and training materials available on health care reporting, these core topic pages within the larger site will offer a more curated collection of materials and the practical daily guidance of a lead editor who specializes in the topic, said Len Bruzzese, executive director of AHCJ and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded three journalists AHCJ Media Fellowships on Health Performance. The program, in its second year, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care systems and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The fellowship program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is intended to give mid-career print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to learn about examples of high-performing health care systems, to focus on innovations in care delivery, and to explore a system or its significant parts to determine what makes that system effective or ineffective. Fellows will be able to examine providers of care, insurers, regulators and policymakers.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has asked Chief Justice John G. Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court to permit live audio and video coverage of the oral arguments next March in the case challenging congressional authority to mandate health insurance coverage and other provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

The Association of Health Care Journalists and six other journalism organizations on Thursday formally protested the Obama administration’s new restrictions on access to the republished Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank.

In a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the groups said that the new restrictions “are ill-advised, unenforceable and probably unconstitutional. Restricting how reporters use public data is an attempt at prior restraint.”

The Association of Health Care Journalists welcomed the re-posting of the public version of the National Practitioner Data Bank today, but expressed concern over new conditions reporters must agree to in using the data.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration removed the Data Bank’s public use file from its website in September, claiming a reporter used it to identify a physician inappropriately.

“I appreciate the Obama administration’s willingness to work with reporters on this issue but I am concerned by new restrictions that reporters must agree to in order to access the data,” AHCJ Board President Charles Ornstein said.  ”How can the government say data is public but then say it’s only public with strings attached?”

The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced the selection of the fourth class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows. The 10 journalists will spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The fellowship program will include presentations, roundtable discussions and lab tours on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, obesity and other chronic diseases, vaccine safety, foodborne disease, influenza, antibiotic resistance, autism, climate change and other topics.

The Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, which began accepting 2011 entries today,  has been revamped to reflect the changing nature of media, the Association of Health Care Journalists announced. The contest categories will revolve around story topics more than traditional media platforms.

Investigative articles, consumer pieces, business stories and other work will compete head-to-head, whether they appeared in magazines, in newspapers, on radio, on television or through websites.  Several of these platform-neutral categories will be divided by size, in recognition of the resources different newsrooms can bring to a story.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter today to the Health Resources and Services Administration, criticizing its decision to remove a public version of the National Practitioner Data Bank, which has helped reporters and researchers to expose serious gaps in the oversight of physicians.

“Shutting down public access to the data bank undermines the critical mission of identifying inefficiencies within our health care system – particularly at the expense of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries,” Grassley wrote to HRSA Administrator Mary Wakefield. “More transparency serves the public interest.”

A former federal official criticized a decision by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration for removing the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank from the agency's website - a major development as journalism groups fight to restore access to the important tool.

Robert Oshel, who created the Public Use File in the mid-1990s and managed it until his retirement in 2008, said in a statement released to the Association of Health Care Journalists on Sunday that HRSA is "erroneously interpreting the law" governing the data bank.

The Association of Health Care Journalists and five other journalism groups appealed to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to intervene in the dispute over the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank and restore access to this important data tool.

AHCJ was joined in its letter to Sebelius by Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Science Writers, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the National Freedom of Information Coalition. The groups have more than 15,000 members.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration resisted demands by three major journalism organizations for the immediate restoration of a Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank, a tool that reporters have used to expose lapses in oversight of troubled physicians.

HRSA removed the Public Use File from the data bank website earlier this month because officials believe it was used to identify physicians inappropriately.

In letters to the Association of Health Care Journalists, Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists, HRSA Administrator Mary Wakefield said her agency regretted having to remove the Public Use File from its website and hopes to bring it back in some form "as quickly as is possible." She did not provide a date.

Three additional journalism organizations have joined the campaign calling for the Obama administration to restore access to a public version of the National Practitioner Data Bank. And letters are going out to key members of Congress asking for their assistance.

The National Association of Science Writers, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and National Freedom of Information Coalition have signed the letter, along with the Association of Health Care Journalists, Investigative Reporters & Editors, and the Society of Professional Journalists.  The groups have more than 15,000 members.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, joined by the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors, sent a letter to the Obama administration today protesting its decision to pull offline a public database of physician discipline and malpractice payments.

AHCJ, SPJ and IRE called for the government to immediately restore access to the Public Use File of the National Practitioner Data Bank. The government has made this file available online for years, and reporters have used it to call attention to lax oversight of physicians across the country.

Six journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows. The fellowship program was created to increase reporters' access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health.

"This is a great class of fellows interested in putting some new resources to use in their news reports," said AHCJ Executive Director Len Bruzzese. "And, because of our past fellowships, the professionals at the Library of Medicine are excited to share these tools with journalists."

New guidance addresses information release in public health emergencies

Public health officials and journalists now have guidance on what information should be made public when someone dies or falls ill during a public health emergency, thanks to a unique collaborative effort being made public today.

A new document – developed by leaders in public health and health-care journalism – provides a framework for releasing such information as the age and location of private individuals who have been affected by an epidemic or other public-health event.  

Gideon Gil, the health and science editor at The Boston Globe, joins five incumbents in being seated on the Association of Health Care Journalists' 2011-12 board of directors.

Incumbents starting a new two-year term include Felice Freyer of The Providence (R.I.) Journal,  Carla K. Johnson of The Associated Press, independent journalist Maryn McKenna, Charles Ornstein of ProPublica and Karl Stark of The Philadelphia Inquirer. Independent journalist Andrew Holtz, a longtime board member and former interim executive director, chose not to run for re-election.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the inaugural class of the Regional Health Journalism Fellowship, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors across the United States.

The program evolved from the former Midwest Health Journalism Fellowship, which trained dozens of journalists in Kansas and Missouri over the past four years. The new Regional Fellowship will draw from a larger region, which changes each year. This first set of fellows was selected from Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Each year, members in AHCJ’s “professional” category elect members for the association board of directors. (Associate and allied members cannot run for election or cast ballots.)

Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. Incumbent board members are allowed to run for re-election.

The AHCJ board has amended the organization's membership guidelines, completing a process first begun in early 2010. The adjustments are an effort to make membership rules more consistent and ensure AHCJ is first and foremost an organization of and for journalists.

The changes will have no effect on most current members, says board member Phil Galewitz, chair of the Membership Committee. Journalists working for publications of health companies or health advocacy organizations, however, will be shifted into the associate member category, if they are not already there, he said.

The Food and Drug Administration has adopted a policy on embargoes that permits reporters to share embargoed information with outside sources, provided the sources agree to uphold the embargo.

The policy explicitly supports embargoes as a way for reporters to add depth and detail to their stories, and conforms to common practice among medical journals and other sources of complex information.

The policy was shared with AHCJ this week after complaints from the organization earlier this year. In January, the FDA barred reporters from interviewing experts about new regulations on medical devices until the embargo lifted. AHCJ wrote to the FDA that such an approach created obstacles to serious journalism.

Stories were pitched, skills were sharpened, cutting-edge technologies were experienced firsthand. Those are just a few of the highlights of the record-setting Health Journalism 2011, AHCJ's annual conference, held April 14-17 in Philadelphia.

More than 625 attendees – a record – from 37 states and six countries were on hand, including about 100 fellows – also a record – through seven different fellowship programs, funded by five private foundations.

The presidents of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists published an op-ed in The Washington Post this morning, criticizing the lack of openness within the Obama administration and calling on officials to improve the flow of information to journalists and the public.

Investigations into shoddy oversight of adult care homes and low quality at dialysis centers – along with moving portrayals of the trade-offs patients and their families face with some life-saving medical treatments – were among the top winners in this year's Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

First-place honors also went to stories examining the bankruptcy of an iconic New York hospital and the pollution conundrum posed by wood stoves. Domestic issues were not the only focus: Winners also included a look at the state of health care in China and a series highlighting how other countries face up to difficult questions about who will receive care amid limited resources.

AHCJ representatives held a series of meetings in Washington, D.C., last week to press for government openness at the state and federal levels.

AHCJ President Charles Ornstein and board member Felice Freyer (chair of the board's Right to Know Committee) met with representatives of the Health and Human Services Department, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as 12 newly appointed state health directors organized by the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.

The federal officials professed a commitment to openness, within limits, and promise to look into specific requests to further that goal. The state health officials, who heard a panel presentation about working effectively with reporters, were receptive and eager to talk with AHCJ about building relationships at the state level.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has sent a letter to FDA officials asking them to re-examine a policy that prohibits reporters from sharing embargoed materials with sources before the embargo lifts for the purpose of obtaining outside comment and context. As AHCJ notes, this highly unusual policy severely limits the ability of reporters to give readers the full story of a federal agency.

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust made the three-year grant of $1,097,000 to the Missouri-based Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the educational arm of the Association of Health Care Journalists, to increase the range of training opportunities for current journalists and to help develop new health journalists across the country.

The Joint Commission, the largest nonprofit organization to accredit hospitals in the United States, has improved the quality of information available to consumers and journalists on its website.  In response to a request by AHCJ's Right to Know Committee, the agency has made it easy to tell whether a facility has recently lost accreditation or is in danger of losing it.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has signed on to a letter criticizing a proposal by the Texas A&M University System that would result in punishment for journalism instructors who assign students to file open-records requests with institutions in the A&M University System.

Reporters covering cholera in Haiti and the latest tsunami in Indonesia bring the world's attention to people in urgent need, just as they did following the Haiti earthquake and Pakistan floods earlier this year. However, a few news reports from these and other places in crisis raise questions of journalistic ethics and professional responsibility. These questions prompted the board of AHCJ to consider these questions and offer guidance to our colleagues.

When the H1N1 pandemic first hit in the fall or 2009, every sickness and every death was of great interest to the public. Anxiety ran high; people wanted to know how this new illness was affecting their communities. In some places, public health officials released considerable information about the victims. In others, however, they revealed little or nothing.

That may change soon, thanks to a cooperative effort between AHCJ's Right to Know Committee and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, aimed at establishing flexible guidelines on how much information to reveal about victims in a public health crisis.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced the selection of the third class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows. The 11 journalists will spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fellows will tour the CDC director's National Emergency Operations Center, meet sources on policy and research and learn how to tap the agency's abundant resources to produce better stories. The training will take place in December at CDC's Atlanta and Chamblee campuses. 

On Oct. 9, health care journalists and journalism professors turned out for a free workshop on how to use resources from the National Library of Medicine. Attendees learned how to access several of the National Library of Medicine's online databases and tested the waters in the Cleveland-Akron area about interest in forming a local chapter of AHCJ to provide opportunities for more education/training events and networking.

Local, state and federal health officials from around the country will gather Friday with journalists to start developing guidelines on how much information health officials should release about deaths during a public health emergency or outbreak.

The meeting springs from concerns that AHCJ raised last year about the wide variations in the type of information disclosed when people died from H1N1.

Health officials in some states revealed such details as age and town of residence. Others merely acknowledged that someone somewhere had died. The discrepancies became the topic of news reports and may have led to public distrust of health authorities.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has released its latest slim guide, "Covering Medical Research: A Guide for Reporting on Studies." The guide, published with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is one in a series intended to assist reporters in thoughtfully planning their coverage, and at the same time, serve reporters on deadline to quickly find the best sources or data.

The guide explains the hierarchy and quality of evidence when it comes to medical studies, how to put each of the types of studies into context for your audience, explaining absolute risk and relative risk and the all-important "number needed to treat." It is meant as an online resource for AHCJ members, is easily surfed on one's desktop and provides live links to even more resources for reporters.

Six journalists have been named to this year's class of AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows. The fellowship program was created to increase reporters' access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health.

The fellows, selected from dozens of qualified applicants, will visit the NIH campus in September for hands-on workshops about how to use and get the most from several government research databases, such as PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov and ToxNet. Fellows also will meet with senior NLM and NIH researchers and officials for exclusive informational sessions.

AHCJ members will now get special access to data and mapping tools, thanks to an agreement the organization has made with Esri, a company that provides mapping software and data.

This new member benefit allows AHCJ members to use data – at no cost – to enhance their health reporting. They will have the option to sign up for a basic subscription to Esri's Business Analyst Online (BAO), a web-based demographic data exploration application. Journalists can use BAO to investigate demographic patterns and compare areas through interactive maps.

The AHCJ board of directors in June voted unanimously to revise the association's membership guidelines in an effort to involve more journalists and have a more consistent approach to eligibility.

"Under our expanded eligibility, more journalists will be able to take advantage of the many resources of AHCJ and their inclusion will make us a stronger organization," said Phil Galewitz, chair of the AHCJ membership committee and a correspondent for Kaiser Health News. "At the same time, we are once again making it perfectly clear that AHCJ will not permit members who conduct public or media relations, with the exception of officers of independent, nonpartisan health and journalism foundations."

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2010-11 class of the Midwest Health Journalism Program, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors from Kansas and Missouri.

The program provides established journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on critical state and local health issues. The goals include a better-educated public and more accountability for policymakers, say the program planners.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has awarded the first AHCJ Media Fellowships on Health Performance. The program, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, is meant to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care systems and the U.S. health system as a whole.

The fellows will receive customized training, mentoring and financial support for field reporting and conference attendance. They are expected to complete a significant and unique reporting project by the end of the fellowship year in June 2011.

 The Association of Health Care Journalists sent comments in support of full-text access to the fruits of publicly-funded research to members of Congress considering H.R.5037 – Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009. One section of that bill would require researchers who receive funding from federal agencies to provide free online public access to final peer-reviewed manuscripts or published versions as soon as practicable, but not later than six months after publication in peer-reviewed journals.

We don't often get the chance to say thank you to the individuals who add $20 to their membership renewals or offer multi-year pledges matched by their em­ployers. This kind of support is testament to how members feel about the mission of an organization. It is the support of which we should be most proud.

We are happy to list the individuals who gave that little bit extra during the past fiscal year. The entire organization thanks you.

President's Corner, by Charles Ornstein

On a day-to-day basis, it seemed that political stories got better billing - at least from my vantage point. With the election of Scott Brown and the looming 2010 primaries, part of that is understandable. But I am really proud of the job health journalists did breaking through the noise and putting the political developments in the appropriate policy context. Time and again, reporters from outlets big and small profiled folks struggling with and without insurance in their communities, looked at the budget realities in their states and went beyond the catch phrases used by both sides. Journalists repeatedly took the vari­ous bills moving through the process and explained how they would affect readers, listeners and viewers. And they especially did this after the bill became law.

But for us, as health reporters, the hardest task comes next. As health reform is implemented, we move from the theo­retical to the actual.

Andy Miller, longtime health care journalist, joined five incumbents in being seated on the Association of Health Care Journalists' 2010-2011 board of directors.

Incumbents starting a new two-year term include Julie Appleby and  Phil Galewitz of Kaiser Health News; Ivan Oransky of Reuters Health; Trudy Lieberman of Columbia Journalism Review; and freelancer Irene Wielawski. The six journalists were the only ones to register in time to run for the six open spots, precluding the need for an election. Board member Mike Stobbe of The Associated Press chose not to run for re-election.

If a public relations representative listens in on an interview, should the reporter let readers know?

That question has recently stirred debate among AHCJ members and others, following discussion sparked by AHCJ's Right-to-Know Committee, a 12-member group working to improve access to information for reporters and the public. Members of the committee recently met with federal officials about improving reporters' access to experts. In addition, the committee is working with state and local public health officials to develop guidelines on reporting deaths of interest to the public, continues its efforts to persuade the Joint Commission to make its Web site more transparent and accessible, and to challenge medical groups that impose excessive restrictions on recording and photography at their meetings.

If you are a "professional" member of AHCJ and would like to serve on the board of directors, you are invited to declare your candidacy. Each year, AHCJ conducts an election to pick people to serve on the association's board of directors. Six of the 12 positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. The organization has issued its call for candidates.

More than 50 people attended the Rural Health Journalism Workshop 2010, part of the Association of Health Care Journalists' Midwest Health Journalism Program, on June 4 in Kansas City, Mo. With 15 speakers and topics that included a look at barriers to mental health services in rural areas, health disparities, oral health and more, attendees of the free, daylong event left with story ideas and new resources to enhance their reporting.

Thanks to a grant from a group of Kansas and Missouri health foundations, the Association of Health Care Journalists (based at the Missouri School of Journalism) has worked with the Kansas Health Institute and the KU School of Journalism to create the Midwest Health Journalism Program. Through our Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, we select a handful of journalists annually from each of the two states for a training fellowship. This will be our fourth class.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced a new fellowship program to help journalists understand and report on the performance of local health care systems and the U.S. health system as a whole. The AHCJ Media Fellowships on Health Performance, supported by The Commonwealth Fund, provides for training as well as field reporting assistance.

The program for mid-career journalists is intended to give print, broadcast and online reporters an opportunity to learn about examples of high-performing health care systems, to focus on innovations in care delivery, and to explore a system or its significant parts to determine what makes that system effective or ineffective. Fellows will be able to examine providers of care, insurers, regulators and policymakers.

A limited number of trade associations and partisan foundations will be al­lowed to exhibit at next year's AHCJ con­ference under a pilot program approved by the group's board of directors at its April meeting.

The action, one of several key decisions made by the board, came in response to concerns that the exhibit hall could offer a more complete exchange of ideas while not being turned into a commercial ba­zaar.

More than 500 attendees of Health Journalism 2010 took advantage of news-breaking speakers, experts on the impact of health reform, ideas on pursu­ing patient safety stories and more. The Association of Health Care Journalists' four-day annual conference in Chicago featured field trips, workshops, panels, roundtables and news briefings focusing on health reform, public health and medi­cal device safety.

Investigations into questionable autism treatments, the safety of generic drugs, claims denials by disability insurers and the global trade in smuggled cigarettes were among the top winners in this year's Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

The 2009 awards, announced today by the Association of Health Care Journalists, recognize the best health reporting in nine categories, covering print, broadcast and online media. The contest, in its sixth year, received more than 250 entries.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has asked medical organizations to end  policies that bar journalists from recording or photographing the meetings where new scientific research is presented.  Such policies make it difficult for journalists to provide complete and accurate information to the public. Most medical societies do not bar recording and photography

Health Journalism 2010, set for April 22-25 in Chicago, is expected to draw hundreds of reporters, editors, news directors and producers for the latest information on covering health issues for consumer and trade audiences.

The annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists will feature a Newsmaker Briefing by Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Frieden assumed the role last summer at the height of the public's attention to the H1N1 flu pandemic.

In a year when health reform debate has reached a fevered pitch, a special "Assessing Health Reform" track will devote several panels to related questions. The conference will include dozens of panels with a mix of journalists and topic experts. There will be field trips and sessions about finding health story ideas in data and maps. Other sessions will cover every angle of health - including science, medicine, money, politics and policy. Attendees will have opportunities to learn about the trends of aging, both policy and science; the future of women's health research; spotting conflicts of interest in medical research; how state budgets impact the health of poor people; and more.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has called upon the Joint Commission, the nonprofit agency that accredits hospitals, to do a better and more complete job of telling the public what it knows about the quality of hospital care.

An informal poll of AHCJ members from across the country, as well as a review of press releases and news reports, reveals that there is a wide variation in what information local and state health officials are disclosing about H1N1 deaths. AHCJ is preparing a guide for journalists who have difficulty getting basic information about deaths that are of public interest. The organization also hopes to work with public health officials on national level to encourage greater openness.

Eleven major journalism organizations, representing thousands of journalists, are demanding the U.S. Food and Drug Administration end requirements that journalists and FDA employees notify or obtain permission from an agency official in order to conduct an interview.

The Association of Health Care Journalists, the Society of Professional Journalists, the National Newspaper Association, the Radio Television Digital News Association and several other journalism groups were joined by more than two dozen individual journalists in signing the letter sent to the agency's Transparency Task Force this week.

Meryl Davids Landau writes about her experience as a 2008-09 AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellow, meeting her "fellow Fellows" and CDC officials, what topics she learned more about and how she has been able to translate that experience into a number of articles for various news outlets.

She says that, eight months later, she is still developing and pitching stories based on what she learned during her week in Atlanta and that the fellowship boosted her credibility with editors.

This will be my last HealthBeat column. After five years as president of AHCJ, it's time to turn the gavel over to Charlie Ornstein and a new set of officers who will take their positions at the fall board meeting in Miami. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve this organization for so long as president and help build it into one of the best, most vibrant professional journalism organizations around. I will always consider being president of AHCJ a highlight of my very long career in journalism.

The fellowship program will include presentations, roundtable discussions and lab tours on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, obesity, vaccine safety, pandemic flu preparedness, autism and many other topics.

The Association of Health Care Journalists sent letters this week to several federal agencies and a medical journal objecting to the uneven handling of embargoed news.

The AHCJ letters were addressed to officials at the National Institute of Mental Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics to protest the recent handling of embargoes on two autism studies.

AHCJ and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have agreed to a second annual national fellowship program for journalists. Ten fellows will be chosen to spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two CDC campuses in Atlanta in December. The training will take place Dec. 13-18, 2009 at CDC's Atlanta and Chamblee campuses. Fellowship applications are being accepted until Oct. 23.

The AHCJ board of directors elected a new set of officers to take their seats at the upcoming fall board meeting.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2009-10 class of the Midwest Health Journalism Program, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors from Kansas and Missouri. The program provides established journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on critical state and local health issues. The goals include a better-educated public and more accountability for policymakers, say the program planners.

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Members of the Association of Health Care Journalists elected two new names to the AHCJ board of directors and returned four incumbents to their posts for the 2009-11 term.

Felice J. Freyer of The Providence Journal and Maryn McKenna, an independent journalist and author, were selected to join the board. Incumbents Charles Ornstein of ProPublica, Karl Stark of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Carla K. Johnson of The Associated Press and Andrew Holtz, a Portland, Ore., independent journalist, were returned to the board.

Six journalists have been named the first AHCJ-National Library of Medicine fellows. The fellowship program was created this year to increase reporter access and understanding of the considerable resources available at NLM and the National Institutes of Health.

The visit to the NIH campus, set for Sept. 13-17, will allow hands-on workshops about how to use and get the most from several government research databases, such as PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov and ToxNet. Fellows also will meet with senior NLM and NIH researchers and officials for exclusive informational sessions.

The Midwest Health Journalism Program completed another year with the graduation in June of its second class of fellows. The selection of Kansas and Missouri journalists for a third class of fellows is under way for this cooperative effort of AHCJ, the Kansas Health Institute and the University of Kansas School of Journalism that provides established journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on critical state and local health issues.

Each year, members in the "active" or professional category elect members for AHCJ's board of directors. Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. Incumbent board members are allowed to run for re-election. Potential board members need to declare candidacy by 5 p.m. (ET) on July 6.

The Association of Health Care Journalists objects to any effort by the Journal of the American Medical Association to silence whistle-blowers who call attention to potential conflicts of interest involving study authors. It could discourage potential whistle-blowers from coming forward with crucial information that physicians and the general public urgently need to make informed decisions about medical care.

A reporter's revelation of astonishing conflicts of interest by scientists advocating for early detection of lung cancer led to one of this year's Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. The awards also spotlighted such work as the exploration of a hidden world of illegal prescription drugs sold at swap meets, a narrative on a mechanic seeking to rebuild his life after an accident severed his arms, and a trip into the nightmarish world of a boy struggling with mental illness.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has urged President Barack Obama to end inherited policies that require public affairs officers to approve journalists' interviews with federal staff. A letter sent to the Obama administration points out that such policies hamper newsgathering and make it difficult for reporters to fulfill their obligation to hold government agencies accountable.

The Association of Health Care Journalists supports full and timely public access to the results of government-funded research. It believes legislation introduced this month by U.S. Rep. John Conyers Jr. and others would constitute a blow to the public's right to access vital scientific data.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has announced the selection of the first class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows. The 11 journalists will spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two Atlanta campuses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The fellowship program, supported by the CDC Foundation, will include presentations, roundtable discussions and lab tours on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, obesity, vaccine safety, pandemic flu preparedness, autism and many other topics.

AHCJ has begun taking applications for the organization's new mentoring program, a project designed to help AHCJ members share their expertise with other members who are in the process of building their careers. Whether you are just starting out and seeking advice on getting ahead or interested in making a mid-career transition and looking for someone to show you the ropes, AHCJ's mentoring program can help you achieve your goals.

Although AHCJ membership continued to increase this year as more journalists learned of its training opportunities and useful services, the group recognizes the strain under which the news media finds itself. The economic downturn has resulted in layoffs, buyouts and downsizings in several industries, including our own.

With that in mind, AHCJ is announcing a Transition Assistance Program (TAP) to help members who are forced into a job change. Any current AHCJ member who is laid off or is required to take a buyout, is eligible for TAP.

AHCJ and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have unveiled a new national fellowship program for journalists. Ten fellows will be chosen to spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two CDC campuses in Atlanta in early 2009. The application deadline is Dec. 29.

Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez' moving stories about his relationship with a mentally ill street musician helped illuminate the often forgotten illness of schizophrenia and the plight of the homeless living on skid row.

Lopez described his personal and professional journey in a keynote talk at AHCJ's second annual Urban Health Journalism Workshop in New York in October, reminding attendees why they became reporters and writers and the power they have to change lives.

Two important journalism organizations are urging local broadcast stations and newspapers to avoid arrangements with hospitals that improperly influence health coverage, saying unethical partnerships interfere with independent news coverage of health care.

The Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society of Professional Journalists are concerned about news media that publish or broadcast stories, reports, news releases and interviews prepared or paid for by hospitals.

Each spring it's time to take stock of where we are as an association - what we have done in the past year and where we are headed for the next one. As I noted in March at our annual meeting in Washington, D.C., AHCJ is in the best position ever - financially and otherwise.

Members of the Association of Health Care Journalists have re-elected five directors and added one new one for the 2008-09 fiscal year.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the 2008-09 class of the Midwest Health Journalism Program, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors from Kansas and Missouri.

A new series of health-related webcasts for journalists debuts next week with a spotlight on the growing problem of the underinsured – those who have insurance but are still at risk for substantial out-of-pocket expenses. "Talking Health" will be presented by the Association of Health Care Journalists, The Commonwealth Fund and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism.

Each year, members in the "active" or professional category elect members for AHCJ's board of directors. Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. Incumbent board members are allowed to run for re-election. Potential board members need to declare candidacy by 5 p.m. (Central time) on June 27.

About 75 people gathered in early May for AHCJ's first Rural Health Journalism Workshop to explore the special issues facing people living in rural areas, such as limited access to health care providers and pharmacies and a lack of resources. Journalists listened to experts on panels that dealt with diabetes, visual and dental health, challenges in getting health care workers to practice in rural areas, immigration, aging, how Medicare affects rural health care and more.

The Midwest Health Journalism Program completed its first year with the graduation in May of its inaugural class of fellows. The fellowship program was launched in 2007 through funding by a consortium of six Missouri and Kansas health foundations. Chris King, editorial director of the St. Louis American, was one of the fellows. In a sidebar, he reflects on their experiences and what they learned during their year as fellows.

Concerned by incidents in which hospitals have attempted to restrict newsgathering, the Association of Health Care Journalists strongly urges reporters to resist signing confidentiality agreements with hospitals. Confidentiality agreements typically aim to bar journalists from disclosing information they discover in the course of reporting at a facility, unless they obtain the hospital's approval.

More than two-thirds of health care reporters taking part in a First Amendment survey have had stories held or left unpublished because the Food and Drug Administration did not respond to FOIA requests in a timely manner. Only a third of reporters said they received a response within the required 20 days called for in the federal Freedom of Information Act. Many waited months or years – or never received requested data, according to the survey and analysis conducted for the Association of Health Care Journalists by graduate students at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

A record crowd attending Health Journalism 2008 heard Elizabeth Edwards criticize Republican presidential candidate John McCain's health care proposals, actor Dennis Quaid urge better protection against hospital medical errors and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt unveil access to hospital patient satisfaction data.

Health Journalism 2008 highlights include an opening newsmaker briefing from actor Dennis Quaid with his very personal perspective on medical errors and a roundtable of some of AHCJ's founding members discussing the organization's past and future.

An investigation into deaths in Georgia's psychiatric hospitals, a riveting examination of the way genetic screening tests have changed American life, and a look at the abysmal state of dental health in West Virginia are among the top winners of the latest Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

The 2007 awards, announced today by Association of Health Care Journalists, recognize the best health reporting in 10 categories covering print, broadcast and online media. In its fourth year, the contest received nearly 400 entries.

Hollywood actor Dennis Quaid, Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards, will headline the nation's largest health care journalism conference. About 500 attendees are expected to attend Health Journalism 2008, set for March 27-30 in Washington, D.C. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the association, one of the world's fastest-growing journalism organizations.

Truth in advertising is a motto we adhere to at the Association of Health Care Journalists, right down to the organization's name. That's the reason behind a recent update to our membership guidelines.

Veteran journalist and computer-assisted reporting instructor Jeff Porter has joined the Association of Health Care Journalists staff as its first special projects director. Porter will help with current and upcoming special projects, conference content planning and outreach efforts.

Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, spoke to about three dozen journalists at an AHCJ event in London.The event was followed by a discussion about creating a U.K. chapter of AHCJ.

As balloting gets under way in the 2008 presidential primary season, three leading candidates have outlined their views on health care in response to questions posed by members of the Association of Health Care Journalists, the nation's leading group of health journalists.

Sixteen reporters from Tallahassee to Fort Lauderdale gathered on Nov. 13 at the Winter Park Health Foundation in Winter Park, just outside Orlando.

More than 100 working journalists and journalism students attended the first Urban Health Journalism Workshop, presented by the Association of Health Care Journalists and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. The event was hosted by the Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York, where participants got to tour the new facilities. The workshop's keynote address and opening reception gave attendees a chance to see The New York Times' new building, as well.

The AHCJ board of directors has approved extending the association's international membership discount for another year. The discount, allowing journalists from countries outside the United States and Canada to join for $30, was first approved in the fall of 2006.

The Association of Health Care Journalists and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism announced that it has received a $750,000 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support conferences and workshops, increase its training and outreach activities, and fund AHCJ's core educational and operational efforts.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has released its latest slim guide, "Covering Obesity." The guide, published with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is one in a series intended to assist reporters planning projects to think through the issues, and at the same time, to serve reporters on deadline surf quickly to sources or data.

Washington, D.C., members gathered July 18 for a brown-bag lunch and panel discussion on drug safety regulation and the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), currently in conference committee in Congress. The panelists were Susan F. Wood, Ph.D., professor of environmental and occupational health at George Washington University and former director of FDA's Office of Women's Health; and Caroline Loew, Ph.D., senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. Audio of this timely and informative discussion is available for download.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has named the inaugural class of the Midwest Health Journalism Program, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors from Kansas and Missouri.

AHCJ members, voting in this year's board election, re-elected five directors and added one new one. Half the board faces election each year. Re-elected: Andrew Holtz, Charles Ornstein, Carla K. Johnson, Karl Stark and Mary Chris Jaklevic. Newly elected this year is Sheree Crute.

AHCJ's board of directors has sent a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter stating opposition to secrecy clauses in contracts between medical device manufacturers and hospitals that interfere with the vital watchdog role of the news media.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has launched its new Web site featuring enhanced, easy-to-access resources for reporters, editors and others covering health news. AHCJ members will find more in-depth resources to help cover the beat, including articles written exclusively for the AHCJ site, tip sheets from fellow journalists, links to in-depth health coverage, an e-newsletter and much more.

A consortium of six health foundations in Kansas and Missouri has pledged $724,739 to establish the Midwest Health Journalism Program, an annual fellowship program for reporters and editors from both states. The program involves a cooperative effort among the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Kansas Health Institute and the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas.

We hope this new Web site will become your new home on the Internet. You'll find more in-depth resources to help you cover your beat, including articles written exclusively for the AHCJ site, tip sheets from fellow journalists, links to in-depth health coverage, an e-newsletter and much more.

The kickoff meeting of the Chicago chapter of AHCJ drew about 20 people who got a scoop: the first word of a report on Medicare-funded hospices by the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. An OIG staff member gave a summary, highlighting findings on Illinois hospices - all in advance of the report's official release.

New strategies for covering local hospitals' quality of care and financial soundness were among the topics spotlighted during the "2007 Gnat Line News Briefing: Real Health and Medical News for Working Reporters."

Twenty journalism organizations – representing more than 25,000 journalists – today joined the Association of Health Care Journalists in asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to stop using video news releases that have the appearance of authentic news reports. AHCJ President Andrew Holtz made the request in a telephone call to HHS spokesman William Pierce on Tuesday.