AHCJ member Marilynn Marchione, a senior medical writer at The Associated Press, is the recipient of the 2010 Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Journalism from the Council for the Advancement of Science Writing.
The award is for a body of work published or broadcast within the past five years. The organization describes Marchione’s work as “compelling and enterprising reporting for a worldwide audience.” The judges were “impressed by Marchione’s authoritative approach to timely medical issues and her ability to juggle the demands of day-to-day wire service coverage with in-depth reporting that is rich in human interest.”
Marchione’s wide-ranging daily and in-depth consumer health coverage has sought to bring medical science findings to readers in a way that is relevant to their own health choices. She was recognized for her insight and narrative skills as reflected in stories on the overuse of diagnostic radiation, the hazards of alternative medicine, the plight of severely wounded U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq, a preview of the world’s first face transplants, and the dangers of soda increasing obesity.
Marchione became a medical writer for AP in 2004 after 28 years as a reporter and editor at metropolitan daily newspapers in Milwaukee, Chicago and Akron, Ohio. In 2000, she had a four-month Knight Journalism Fellowship in epidemiology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has had fellowships in public health, genetics and other topics. She moderated a panel at Health Journalism 2010 on “Guidelines for writing about preventive health guidelines” and spoke on a panel about “Assessing claims of functional foods and nutritional supplements.”
The Council for the Advancement of Science Writing is a not-for-profit organization of journalists and scientists committed to improving the quality of science news reaching the public. The Cohn award was established in 2000 and honors the late Washington Post medical writer and health columnist Victor Cohn.
