Training: Conferences

AHCJ’s first conference in the Mountain States will take place at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Denver. Join hundreds of your peers for what has become the world’s most important gathering and training event in health care journalism. Take part in dozens of workshops, panel sessions and roundtable discussions featuring some of the best minds in medicine, health policy, research, public health and business.

Sign up for educational field trips and the annual Freelance PitchFest. Visit with exhibitors who can provide new story resources. With a great hotel rate, the lowest registration fees in journalism training and the chance to network with newsmakers and news gatherers, you can’t afford to miss this conference!

A record crowd of more than 750 attended Health Journalism 2013 in Boston. Journalists from across the United States and eight other nations took part in skill-building workshops, panel discussions and field trips to area research sites.

The conference, produced by the association’s Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, featured world-class speakers, and helpful sessions aimed at aiding reporters, editors and news producers in better covering the latest health issues. AHCJ used a news briefing to unveil its news app, hospitalinspections.org.

Former President Jimmy Carter, and first lady Rosalynn Carter, as well as Otis Brawley, M.D., the American Cancer Society's chief medical and scientific officer, and David Satcher, former U.S. Surgeon General, will be spotlight speakers at the annual conference of AHCJ.

David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., former surgeon general and CDC director, will join us on April 20 to discuss what the future looks like for primary care.

As a special feature this year, we will be joined by former Olympic runner Jeff Galloway. He will lead early-morning risers on an easy-paced run around downtown on April 19. After returning to the hotel, he will discuss covering health and fitness.

Join more than 500 other journalists as they take part in skill-building workshops, sit in on panel discussions and visit area research sites. The conference, produced by the association’s Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, features world-class speakers, important news briefings and helpful sessions all aimed at aiding reporters, editors and news producers in better covering the latest health issues.

Freelancers will have an opportunity to pitch story ideas to assignment editors. Winners of the latest Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism will be celebrated. An exhibit hall will feature foundations, universities, research institutions and other organizations with useful reporter resources. And all attendees will have numerous opportunities to network with their peers – at sessions, meals and receptions, all of which are  included in the registration fee.

AHCJ's annual conference goes to Philly!

The program will include dozens of panels, field trips, newsmaker briefings, Freelance Pitchfest, world-class speakers, 2010 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism luncheon and a number of other special events.

Speakers will include G. Michael Lemole Jr., M.D., the neurosurgeon who treated U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in Tucson; Brian Deer, the British reporter who exposed the weaknesses in a study that led parents all over the world to withhold vaccines from their children; Walt Bogdanich, an investigative editor at The New York Times; NIH director Francis S. Collins; Donald M. Berwick, administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ... as well as many more outstanding journalists and experts.

Join us in the Windy City for a world-class program of panels, workshops, field trips and classes certain to deepen your knowledge of today's hot-button health issues.

Highlights

• Peter Pronovost, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Johns Hopkins University Quality and Safety Research Group, will be this year's keynote speaker.

Newsmaker briefings with
• Thomas Frieden, director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Kathleen Sebelius, secretary, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Jeffrey Shuren, director, Center for Devices and Radiological Health, Food and Drug Administration

Freelance PitchFest: Writers meet with editors and pitch story ideas

A series of sessions to help you understand health reform and explain it to your audience:
• Does comparative effectiveness research work?
• Outlook for the nation's hospitals
• Is there a looming doctor shortage?
• What's ahead for state and local governments
• The reporting challenge going forward

How-to sessions:
• Finding untold health story ideas in data and maps
• Using Cochrane Library resources
• Building a blog/Web site
• Complete reporter's guide to vaccines
• Getting the most out of PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov
• Deciphering hospital quality data

You'll walk away with immediate and longer-term story ideas, meet  sources, strengthen your reporting skills, attend breaking newsmaker events and network with other journalists working hard to stay on top of their beats.

We remain one of the best training deals in journalism, with registration as low as $150 for journalists and $99 for students.

Join us in Seattle for AHCJ's annual conference, featuring dozens of experts and top journalists.

Reforming our health care system, which many believe is necessary for the United States to see economic recovery, is at the top of many people's minds these days. A number of panels, with expert speakers, at Health Journalism 2009 have been designed to help journalists cover health reform and all of the issues involved in a way that their readers and viewers will understand and appreciate.

More reasons not to miss this conference: Freelance PitchFest , networking with colleagues, receptions and much more. Panels and speakers will cover policy, business, research and clinical topics, with an aim of giving attendees practical ideas and information.

Nearly 600 people attended Health Journalism 2008 for dozens of panels on medical research, public health, the business of health care and consumer health. They also hear actor Dennis Quaid's very personal perspective on medical errors, Elizabeth Edwards' take on John McCain's health care plan, top experts debate the future of health care in this country and much more. News briefings by HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt and officials from the American Public Health Association and its partners let attendees write stories for their news outlets during the conference.