Training: Calendar

The Association of Health Care Journalists has created this program with the support of The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Through our Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, we select 10-12 journalists annually from a specific region of the country for this special opportunity. The 2013-14 fellowship class will come from Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. 

The aim of the program is to provide already-established journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on localizing critical health issues. The program is designed by journalists for journalists. Although the training is spread over a year's time, actual time away from the newsroom totals about two weeks.

Brill will talk about his recent Time Magazine piece, "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us," and other health journalism observations. 

Please join the Chicago chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists for a special event Tuesday, June 11.

Panel discussion: “Changing Costs and Care at the End of Life.”

AHCJ’s sixth Rural Health Journalism Workshop will bring journalists together with health care and policy experts who focus on the medical challenges of rural areas. Leave with a better understanding of what’s happening – or will be happening – in rural regions, and return to work with dozens of story ideas you can pursue.

This special one-day, no-fee workshop will help you find and cover health stories in rural America.

Journalists are invited to tap into health data in a special workshop coming this fall. This AHCJ workshop offers something for data newcomers and  veterans – from spreadsheet basics to visualizing data online. You’ll come away with skills and ideas on teasing stories out of datasets and tools on presenting these stories.

The first day will feature hands-on classes focused on spreadsheet basics for the novices. The second day will feature more advanced training.

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!

Despite pushback from the Republican-controlled Ohio General Assembly, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is still hoping to expand Medicaid and is committed to seeking federal help with the state’s insurance exchange. Find out where things stand in this briefing.

Meet John Polanowicz, the new secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. A former hospital executive and a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and Stanford University’s business school, Polanowicz oversees 15 state agencies. With his background as a company commander in the U.S. Army, he has a special interest in issues facing veterans and military families. Please RSVP by Monday, May 6, to christy@healthjournalism.org.

A special HHS press call will focus on the costs of hospital procedures. Following that briefing, join us for a webinar on understanding and using the data behind those costs.

Instructors include:

• Jonathan Blum, acting principal deputy administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

• Karl Stark, AHCJ vice president and Philadelphia Inquirer health editor 

The free webinar is 2-3 p.m. ET, Wednesday, May 8.

Former California Medicaid Director Stan Rosenstein, the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Larry Levitt, and workforce expert Susan Chapman will address the complex issues that California faces this year leading up to major 2014 health law changes.

Less than a year from now, states must be ready to enroll millions of people in insurance exchanges, as outlined in the 2010 health care overhaul law. Or, the federal government will step in to do the job, or part of it. States also have the option of opening their Medicaid programs to millions of new participants. But that's not much time, considering their long to-do lists.

Will California be ready to begin enrolling people this fall? Will hospitals and insurers be ready in time? Will people with changing economic situations bounce between Medicaid and subsidized private insurance, and will they have gaps in coverage? Will people know what kind of insurance to sign up for, and how to do it? Will there be a shortage of physicians and other medical providers?

This briefing will help you answer these questions for your readers, viewers and listeners.

The Association of Health Care Journalists’ Washington, D.C., Chapter will meet up with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ communications team. This informal, off-the-record gathering is a chance to meet the HHS communications people you may only know through email and phone calls. Dori Salcido, Acting Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, and several members of her staff will be joining us.

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.

Please join the Atlanta chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the nonpartisan Alliance for Health Reform for a special event on Tuesday, March 5.

Health insurance expert Bill Custer, Medicaid expert Tim Jost and Grady Memorial Hospital CEO John Haupert will address the complex issues that Georgia faces this year leading up to major 2014 health law changes.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is holding an open house for AHCJ members. It’s a great way to get in the mood for Health Journalism 2013 in Boston (March 14-17). And even if you’re not going to Boston, this free event promises to produce some good story leads involving the cardiac care of children and adult survivors.

For freelancers and potential freelancers, pitching is job No. 1. AHCJ knows that; that’s why every year, our annual Health Journalism conference offers Freelance PitchFest, which puts you face-to-face with some of the biggest health editors in the country. Members attending Pitchfest know they have to be ready to make a good impression in minutes — and members who won’t be attending the conference, but are busy freelancers, want to know more about pitching too.

AHCJ has your back with a webcast on pitching health stories that sell, featuring some top editors.

One key issue addressed at the recent World Economic Forum was the rapidly increasing global aging population; and how to prepare for its profound impact on global health, as well as the direct economic, social and political implications.

Global experts from the WEF Global Agenda Council on Ageing led this discussion in Davos and presented a new report outlining key challenges/opportunities associated with global aging, including how to improve healthy aging through the innovation of global health systems and investment in long-term health options; as well as specific initiatives to seize the social and economic opportunity created by the aging population.  

AHCJ members are invited to a webinar with leaders from the WEF Council on Ageing to discuss these topics and share specific outcomes from their discussion in Davos

The New York City Metro chapter of AHCJ is proud to announce Dr. Ben Goldacre will be speaking to health journalists at its Feb. 20 meeting.

Goldacre (@bengoldacre), a physician, is author of the best-selling book "Bad Science" and the new book "Bad Pharma," which is already making waves around the globe. Goldacre's website says he specializes in "unpicking dodgy scientific claims from drug companies, newspapers, government reports, PR people and quacks. Unpicking bad science is the best way to explain good science."

Goldacre has been writing the Bad Science column in the Guardian since 2003. His latest campaign, his biggest ever, is AllTrials.net, which is seeking to have all clinical trials registered, all summary results reported, and full Clinical Study Reports made publicly available.

Two doctors who specialize in palliative care will discuss recent innovations in that area and cross-cultural health issues that arise in working with patients and families. A Bay Area journalist who has written about end-of-life issues will share her experiences, including obstacles and challenges in reporting, and how she got around them.

Less than a year from now, states must be ready to enroll millions of people in insurance exchanges, as outlined in the 2010 health care overhaul law. Or, the federal government will step in to do the job, or part of it. States also have the option of opening their Medicaid programs to millions of new participants. But that's not much time, considering their long to-do lists.

What information do the states still need from the federal government about how the federal and partnership exchanges will work? How much latitude will the states have to handle eligibility for Medicaid and to make sure that people transitioning between Medicaid and subsidized private insurance in the exchanges won't have gaps in coverage? Can the federal government be ready with its own back-up exchanges? Will insurers be ready in time?

This briefing, sponsored by AHCJ, the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, will help you answer these questions for your readers, viewers and listeners.

Come toast the holiday season with some fine wine and craft beer with other D.C.-area health reporters and editors. No formal program – just a gathering of health journalists to tell war stories from 2012 and look forward to another crazy year in 2013. 

We are headed into the chilliest season of the year and at the Cleveland Association of Health Care Journalists' Meet 'n Greet you can get a head start on holiday chillin' (and playing catch-up) at Cedar-Fairmount's aptly named and cozy (dim lights, scattered tables, comfy couch) Fairmount Martini and Wine Bar.

Today, Americans are living 30 years longer than their ancestors did just four generations ago. Yet policymakers have been slow to recognize the implications of this unprecedented increase in longevity.

As a result, social institutions of all kinds – workplaces, communities, families, educational organizations, health care providers – haven’t yet adapted to the challenges and opportunities posed by America’s aging population. Nor is there any consensus over what successful adaptation might look like.

In this webcast, three experts will discuss noteworthy trends and research in aging, including a recent study on troubling disparities in life expectancy that was featured on the front page of The New York Times. Judith Graham, AHCJ’s topic leader on aging, will moderate.

The CDC's John Jernigan, M.D., M.S., clinical team lead on the Multistate Meningitis Outbreak and director of the CDC's Office of Health Associated Infections Prevention Research and Evaluation will talk about the agency’s response to the multistate fungal meningitis outbreak.

Join the Chicago chapter of AHCJ on Thursday, Nov. 15, to meet JAMA Editor-in-Chief Dr. Howard Bauchner. He’ll be ready to talk with us about the election and what the voting outcome means for health care, the path of health care reform, changes ahead for The JAMA Network and the state of medical journals.

Do you have an e-book in your writing future? Join us and find out. The Bay Area Chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists invites you to join us and find out.

This event is FREE and all AHCJ members, nonmembers working in health journalism, journalism students, and others in the health care field are welcome. 

The AHCJ Reporting Fellowships on Health Care Performance is a yearlong program allowing journalists to pursue a significant reporting project related to the U.S. health care system. It can be local or national in scope, or a little of both.

Guidance is provided by AHCJ fellowship leaders through customized seminars on health care systems, conference calls and email consultations. The fellowship covers the cost of attending the seminars and AHCJ conferences, and a project allowance is available to defray the cost of field reporting, health data analysis and other project-related research. In addition, each fellow will receive a $2,500 fellowship award upon the successful completion of the project.

This AHCJ webcast will examine one big piece of the puzzle: what this election’s outcome means for seniors on Medicare, older adults who receive long-term care services from Medicaid and other programs that serve our elderly population.

Join us for some drinks, good company – and to hash over the election results and what they mean for health care and especially the Affordable Care Act. John McDonough and Robert Blendon of the Harvard School of Public Health will join us to help make sense of the outcome.

Just days after the November elections, states will have to make final (or reasonably final) decisions about whether they are going to run their own health insurance exchange and what that will look like – or whether the federal government will take responsibility for all or part of the exchange.

We’ll talk to three experts who are doing hands-on work with both “red” and “blue” states.

Experts and journalists have gathered to understand and better report stories on the health status of – and health care provided to – U.S. immigrants, both legal and undocumented.

Sessions include finding the stories you can pursue on the immigrant health paradox, how the health reform battle has impacted immigrants, workplace health and safety, the mental health needs of immigrants, special challenges in covering immigrant communities and more.

Optional hands-on sessions on Thursday will bring to life the connections of data covering immigrants and health via online and desktop data tools.

At this New York City AHCJ chapter meeting, Humphrey Taylor, pollster and chairman of the Harris Poll, will talk about election polling, giving us his insights and maybe some predictions. He also will discuss international health comparisons.

You’re invited to an informal meeting with the policy and communications officials from some of the nation’s leading physician advocacy groups, including the American Medical Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology and the American Osteopathic Association.

Many of you had the pleasure of hearing Brawley, chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society, speak at Health Journalism 2012. Now, Dr. Brawley has been invited back to talk to our Atlanta chapter about various health topics. This will be a fun event, and guaranteed to be thought-provoking as well.

AHCJ put together a panel for the annual joint conference of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Radio Television Digital News Association. Joanne Kenen, AHCJ's health reform topic leader and deputy health editor of Politico; and Stacey Singer, investigative reporter at The Palm Beach (Fla.) Post; offer ideas for local stories about health reform.

The Chicago chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists is planning an event to help you make the most out of Twitter and other social media.

A recording of this webinar is available.

AHCJ members took advantage of an exclusive on-the-record conversation with Farzad Mostashari, M.D., national coordinator for health information technology, and other officials with the HHS Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

View and learn how to use an updated “Health IT Dashboard” to find local-level information for your stories.

AHCJ will hold a members-only call with CMS officials to discuss major upgrades to Nursing Home Compare and Hospital Compare websites.

Join AHCJ on Thursday, July 19, at 11:30 a.m. ET, for an exclusive members-only conversation with officials from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services about the rollout of major new additions to the Nursing Home Compare and Hospital Compare websites. You won't want to miss this.

Many of you are familiar with the Compare websites as sources for information about nursing home citations, hospital patient satisfaction scores, as well as mortality and readmission information. CMS has redesigned the sites and will be launching them on Thursday.

Click here to log in for more information and the chance to test your browser in advance.

To assist reporters who will need to localize the decision, AHCJ will host a webcast with experts to offer suggestions on stories you can pursue right away and in the weeks ahead. The event will take place at noon ET on June 29, the day after the court releases its ruling.

Join the Association of Health Care Journalists Washington DC chapter for an informal happy hour/networking event with the public affairs team from the Department of Health and Human Services from 6:30 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday, June 5 on the outdoor patio at Poste Brasserie in downtown D.C.

Join us in America’s heartland on June 1 to learn how to better report the health stories abounding in rural areas. This special one-day, no-fee workshop in Omaha, Neb., will help you find and cover those stories in your area. Just join AHCJ – or make sure your membership is up to date – to attend.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has played a leading role in research and development of simple, low-cost medical items and devices used in the United States and around the world.

NASA’s Glenn Research Center has been involved in much of that R & D. And since activities there are now focusing on “exploration medicine” – the design and development of diagnostic and treatment devices that non-experts can use during exploration missions – that role will grow.

To learn about NASA’s work on medical devices and procedures currently used in health care and those in development, come and hear from Dr. Jerry G. Myers, Jr., PhD, chief of the Bio Science and Technology branch, NASA Glenn Research Center.

The waiting is the hardest part. So while we wait for a decision from the Supreme Court on President Barack Obama’s landmark health law, AHCJ's Chicago chapter invites you to join us in the Supreme Court guessing game and pose the question: “What’s next for the states on health reform?”

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.

This webinar will bring you up to date on what’s happening in the states with implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. By watching, you will be better able to answer questions on this topic for readers, viewers and listeners.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is forming a Boston-area chapter, and health journalists from the region are invited to the inaugural meeting, featuring Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, who has performed four  face transplants at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

This webinar, for the AHCJ Regional Health Journalism Program fellows, featured Richard Serino, deputy administrator, Federal Emergency Management Agency

This AHCJ Washington, D.C., chapter event will feature conversations on health reform with representatives of some of the major national hospital advocacy organizations.

This briefing will help you better answer questions for your readers, viewers and listeners about many of the key decisions implementing health reform that are left to the states.

As many of us leave traditional media and still others never get a chance to get their feet in the door, it behooves us to consider a new type of skills training: entrepreneurship.

It's a skill that has long been practiced by those of us who work as freelance or independent journalists and communicators. So we invited a three members who have survived and thrived in this milieu – John Ettorre, Maria Shine Stewart and Eileen Beal – to come and share their tips, their stories of trial and triumph, and their encouragement to writers starting or struggling on this path

This briefing will help you better answer questions for your readers, viewers and listeners about many of the key decisions implementing health reform that are left to the states.

This briefing will help you better answer questions for your readers, viewers and listeners about many of the key decisions implementing health reform that are left to the states.

This briefing will help you better answer questions for your readers, viewers and listeners about many of the key decisions implementing health reform that are left to the states. 

Come join your health journalist colleagues and some special guests for some drinks and food. We’ll toast the season, reminisce about a crazy year and look forward to what promises to be a momentous 2012.

AHCJ has teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – with the support of the CDC Foundation – for this national fellowship program for journalists. Ten fellows will be chosen to spend a week studying public health issues at two CDC campuses.

This AHCJ Philadelphia chapter event will be an update on advances in pediatric oncology research and treatment at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). The event will consist of laboratory tours followed by an informal discussion with featured researchers.

The event is free, includes light refreshments and is open to health care journalists from the Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., chapters, as well as from other regions who are interested in attending.

Sponsored by AHCJ, Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The health care overhaul law passed by Congress in 2010 sets out national goals and requirements. But many of the key decisions implementing the law are left to the states. 

What’s happening in Georgia and other states to implement exchanges and other aspects of the health reform law? How are states coping with the law’s Medicaid expansion in a time of budget deficits? As they plan for reform, how are states addressing tough issues such as health care for undocumented immigrants and cutbacks in mental health services? How do states go about getting waivers from the reform law, and how many might take advantage of that option?  

This briefing will help you better answer these questions for your readers, viewers and listeners.

RSVP by noon Nov. 13 to Atlanta chapter chair Andy Miller, andymill111@yahoo.com

This event will teach journalists how to use the social media platforms Twitter and Storify to improve health reporting skills and increase online visibility. You’ll get a thorough overview of Twitter and how to manage it on the third-party platform called Hootsuite. We’ll also look at Storify, a platform for creating stories using social media. Storify cofounder and CEO Burt Herman just received the 2011 SPJ-NorCal Board of Directors’ Distinguished Service award for producing Storify.

Learn how to cover this tremendous economic engine beyond the routine stories, with tools to find essential information your audiences need.

Come meet fellow D.C. area health writers, editors and broadcasters, learn about how you can find stories at HHS OIG about health providers, Medicare fraud and learn about some new online OIG resources and potential news stories coming up in the next few months.

Roberta Baskin and Don White from HHS OIG Public Affairs staff will be on hand.

The event will wrap up by 7:45 p.m. but all are invited after for food and drink at the nearby Laughing Man Tavern.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has teamed up with the National Library of Medicine to present the AHCJ-NLM Fellowships. AHCJ will select four journalists to spend a week on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.

Philadelphia-area AHCJ chapter members will meet with top HHS public affairs officials to discuss issues related to accessing information and experts working for federal agencies under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Richard Sorian, HHS assistant secretary for public affairs, and deputy assistant secretary Dori Salcido will explain the workings of the HHS public affairs office and discuss concerns about access to federal information.

Does your local hospital place more cardiac stents than others? Do more of its patients leave the emergency room without being seen? Does it have a high level of C-section births? These questions and others are relatively easy to answer thanks to a data gold mine kept by the obscure California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. It doesn't matter if your hospital is public, nonprofit or for-profit, data on its patients and services are available online.

Charles Ornstein, senior reporter at ProPublica and president of AHCJ's board of directors, will guide you through using the data to answer those questions and more.

Meet some fellow D.C. area health writers, learn what's going on at AHCJ and meet some of the HHS media team you may only know through email and conference calls. Some of the newest members of the HHS team will be there including Erin Shields from HHS, Brian Cook from CMS and Nick Papas, White House health reform spokesman.

A conference organized by Coventry University in cooperation with AHCJ. 

This conference aims to address some of the key issues in health journalism, as well as the state of training of health journalists, and pressures in modern newsrooms. A program committee is working to nail down sessions and panelists right now and has invited abstract proposals from journalists, educators and researchers. Watch this site for a schedule of events.

Even if your newsroom is in a bustling city, there are untold rural health stories down the road. So join us in St. Louis for this special one-day, no-fee workshop to help you find and cover health stories in rural America. Just join AHCJ – or make sure your membership is up to date – to attend.

Dr. Mendel Singer, director of the Jewish Community Health Initiative at Case Western Reserve University, and Rabbi Akiva Feinstein, spiritual care adviser, will talk about various groups making up the northeast Ohio Jewish community; Jewish public health issues, health care use and perceptions; health research issues primarily affecting Jews; and the new health website that's been receiving a lot of national recognition, JewHealth.org.

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.

Following up on a hugely popular social media event held several years ago, this event will teach journalists how to practically use social media platforms to improve health reporting skills. It will not only revisit the basics of Facebook, Twitter and blogging but also cover some new platforms and tools.

In a rare off-the-record discussion between journalists and government press officers, the D.C. Chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists will host a meeting with press officers of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the White House Office of Health Reform.

The Chicago chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists invites you to a panel discussion of health care overhaul as the law nears its anniversary.

Kansas health is making news. Health reform battles are moving to the state level. Tight tax dollars are straining local health programs. And the list goes on.

Journalists across Kansas have the chance to access government officials and health experts with a focus on health stories that impact the state's residents and media audiences. The news-breaking event will provide journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on critical state and local health issues. The seminar will provide journalists insight into state government's role in health policy. Attendees will leave the event with stories for their newsrooms right away, plus solid ideas for future health-related stories.

Journalists across Missouri have the chance to access government officials and health experts with a focus on health stories that impact the state's residents and media audiences.

The news-breaking event will provide the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on critical state and local health issues.

The seminar will provide journalists from Missouri insight into state government's role in health policy. Attendees will leave the event with stories for their newsrooms right away, plus solid ideas for future health-related stories.

Seminar 2

This 10-month program allows mid-career journalists to pursue a significant reporting project examining health care systems. Guidance is provided through customized seminars on health performance, conference calls and e-mail consultations with AHCJ fellowship leaders.

The Atlanta chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists will gather to greet two visiting groups of journalists on Tuesday, Dec. 7^th.

The social gathering will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the lobby area outside the Club Room at the Emory Conference Center Hotel. That's the same site as our previous meeting. There's free parking in the garage underneath the hotel.

Eleven AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows will spend a week studying public health issues at two CDC campuses. They will attend attend sessions on epidemiology, global disease prevention efforts, pandemic flu preparedness, climate change, vaccine safety, obesity, autism and more. The visit includes a tour of the CDC director's National Emergency Operations Center, the chance to meet new sources on policy and research and information about how to tap the agency's resources to produce better stories.

Learn  techniques and tools for getting the inside story on pharmaceuticals, medical devices, hospitals, and for keeping up with regulatory and legal activity from award-winning, veteran investigative reporters Duff Wilson, of The New York Times, and Charles Ornstein, AHCJ's president and a senior reporter at ProPublica.

Join the Association of Health Care Journalists' Washington, D.C., chapter to mingle with top officials from the Food and Drug Administration's public affairs and press office. Learn more about finding story ideas and where to go for answers to questions and important details. All health care journalists/science writers welcome.

Interested in forming a Cleveland chapter?

Join us for a free workshop for journalists on researching medical stories.

You'll get expert instruction on using the National Library of Medicine's latest research tools. Join us as NLM senior staffer Rob Logan, former science reporter, editor and journalism professor, provides hands-on, interactive training.

The workshop also is a chance to gauge interest in a regional chapter of AHCJ, which could lead to more training, networking and socializing opportunities.

Hosted by AHCJ's SF Bay Area Chapter

Billions of dollars in stimulus money has been allocated to medical and scientific research, funding thousands of medical research projects and scientific infrastructure awarded to individual scientists, one grant at a time. At the University of California, San Francisco, laboratories are humming with researchers who are creating the next generation of genetically inspired drugs and personalized therapies.

The situation offers excellent health care reporting opportunities that combine economics, politics, and medical science. If you have never covered UCSF, this is your opportunity to learn how. 

Hosted by AHCJ's Chicago Chapter

Chicago health journalists will gather for networking and then hear from Dr. David Mayer, co-producer of the award-winning film, "The Faces of Medical Error ... From Tears to Transparency: The Story of Lewis Blackman," and a leader on transparency in health care.

Seminar 1

This 10-month program allows mid-career journalists to pursue a significant reporting project examining health care systems. Guidance is provided through customized seminars on health performance, conference calls and e-mail consultations with AHCJ fellowship leaders.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has teamed up with the National Library of Medicine to present the second AHCJ-NLM Fellowships. AHCJ will select four journalists to spend a week on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.

AHCJ's Atlanta chapter will gather to celebrate the beginning of the end of a torrid summer (global warming, anyone?). This social meeting will coincide with the CDC Influenza Workshop for journalists. We're inviting the journalists attending the workshop to join us.

AHCJ has sponsored 14 journalists to take part in a two-day workshop at the CDC about covering influenza. The workshop includes a series of on-the-record sessions with CDC experts to prepare front-line journalists for the upcoming flu season. Public health experts are providing a primer on the flu, examine how it is being tracked, expectations for vaccines and antivirals, and what communities can do to deal with the fallout.

The notion of the "doctor is in" is undergoing rapid changes, thanks to technology that can skip the doctors' office entirely for some appointments. As health journalists, we can answer questions such as: What are the benefits of "telemedicine" for doctors and patients? What are the downsides? How does telemedicine work and how widespread is it likely to become in the months and years ahead? Will it curb runaway health care costs? We'll explore these questions and more.

AHCJ has announced a 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. 

Join us for a conference call announcing data that will allow you to track the outpatient outcomes at your hospitals.In a conference call with AHCJ members, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced new data that will allow you to track the outpatient outcomes at your hospitals. The data release comes is the latest addition to the agency's Hospital Compare database.

Audio of this conference call is now available.

Join AHCJ's San Francisco Bay Area chapter for an insider's look at one of the best resources for health information in the Bay Area: the California HealthCare Foundation. Now that we have a national health care reform bill, what does that mean for California? Join us for perspectives from a leading authority on health care in the state. We'll learn about resources for reporters and specifics about how the new reform bill will affect various sectors of health care in California in the months and years ahead.

Come to the Association of Health Care Journalists' D.C. chapter meeting with the press office staff from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and White House Office on Health Reform.  CMS and White House officials will discuss how reporters can get information on Medicare and Medicaid and changes coming to the programs under the new health law.

A briefing with some top Washington-based journalists sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

After an intense year of covering health reform, the subject now seems more complicated than ever. Implementation timelines go on for page after page. Many questions seem to have no answers, at least not yet.  Seems like a good time to take a breath and plot out how to cover health reform for the rest of this year, and the time leading up to 2014.

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.

A day devoted to journalists across Missouri will give reporters access to state officials and health experts with a focus on improving health reporting. The news-breaking event will provide journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on critical state and local health issues. The seminars will provide journalists from Missouri insight into state government's role in health policy. The journalists will leave the event with stories for their newsrooms right away, plus solid ideas for future health-related stories. Attendees will hear the latest on a variety of topics, especially important during a time when health – from reform to H1N1 – makes news every day.

The Philadelphia chapter of Association of Health Care Journalists will hold an open meeting on Jan. 25 at the Drexel University College of Medicine. This is an opportunity for journalists to meet some major figures at Drexel and delve into the worlds of surgery, drug development, electronic medical records and the new health bill that Congress is poised to pass. The session is designed to focus on Drexel faculty who will be making news in the next year.

A day devoted to journalists across Kansas will give access to state officials and health experts with a focus on improving health reporting. The news-breaking event will provide journalists with the tools needed to improve the depth and amount of coverage focused on critical state and local health issues. The seminars will provide journalists from Kansas insight into state government's role in health policy. The journalists will leave the event with stories for their newsrooms right away, plus solid ideas for future health-related stories. Attendees will hear the latest on a variety of topics, especially important during a time when health – from reform to H1N1 – makes news every day.

Come join your fellow health journalists for some post-holiday cheer!

We'll be meeting at the Laughing Man Tavern. This event is open to AHCJ and non-AHCJ members, so bring your colleagues too! No agenda. Just a chance to meet new colleagues or old friends.

The Atlanta chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists is having a social gathering next week to welcome 10 fellow health journalists from across the country who are in town for a fellowship program at the CDC. Our visitors include newspaper, magazine and freelance journalists.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has teamed up with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for this national fellowship program for journalists. Ten fellows are chosen to spend a week studying a variety of public health issues at two CDC campuses. The fellowships include membership, travel, lodging and meals.

What do current Medicare beneficiaries think of the program? What do they like and don't like? How would they change their coverage if they could? Experts will explore the high out-of-pocket costs some beneficiaries still must still pay and whether they have too many choices for supplemental and drug coverage. What are the prospects for preventive care services that many beneficiaries say they want? Experts will also look at the long-term prospects for Medicare.

Our panel of experts and journalists will discuss these issues and more with an eye toward what journalists need to know to best inform their readers and viewers.

Send questions in advance to talkinghealth@healthjournalism.org.

Stories about food, nutrition, and the health impacts of eating are all over the media lately. The topic is especially significant for kids, who continue to tip the scales more than their peers even a decade ago and risk heading into adulthood with medical conditions that used to be for adults only. What can be done? Bay Area experts are doing some good work to solve this problem; our speakers are among this group, and share some insights and recent work that will inspire story ideas that will resonate with your readers and listeners. Mandatory RSVPs by 3 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 11.

Over the next 20 years, the 65-plus population is projected to grow four to six times as fast as the population as a whole. Learn what the hot-button issues in our aging society will be and what you need to be reporting on now.

What's ahead in research on chronic conditions, Alzheimer's and genetics? What's evolving in technology? What will be expected of caregivers? What kind of medical coverage will these seniors need? How do changing ethnic populations impact aging issues?

Come explore these issues and more so you can start telling these stories now.

This panel, presented at the California Chicano News Media Association's Journalism Opportunities Conference, will help reporters who don't normally cover health learn how to cover the health angles on their beats.

A San Francisco Chapter event

In these times of shrinking budgets and staff, reporters are more challenged than ever to get the information – especially public information – they need for thorough stories. What changes – if any – have occurred under the Obama Administration that make it easier to have requests for documents honored in a timely manner?  Speakers at this San Francisco Bay Area chapter event will provide background, examples, and smart strategies on these topics:  

• How FOI has changed (if it has) from the Bush to Obama administrations, examples of recent lawsuits, and how to navigate FOI hurdles.
• How the California Public Records Act has changed in the last year, examples of what precipitated legal action, how to make requests, and what to if you get no response or have difficulty getting records.
• What a reporter can do to translate hundreds of thousands of records into a digestible and comprehensive database.

A New York City Metro Chapter event

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most devastating epidemics of our time. But it receives relatively little attention from the media in relation to the 1.8 million deaths (and 9.3 million cases) it causes annually. Even worse, is the growing epidemic of multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB), which is greatly undermining gains in controlling TB particularly among those with HIV/AIDS. Recent data show that 25 percent of people dying of TB are HIV . An expert panel of scientists and journalists will make the case that health journalists must be prepared to cover MDR-TB and to persuade editorial leadership of its urgency.

An Atlanta Chapter event

The Atlanta chapter of AHCJ is piggybacking off a just-announced town hall forum on health care reform. If you can't make the start of the town hall, drop by later on. And plan to meet up afterward in the hotel bar in the lobby, the Parasol, to chat about health care and other issues.The town hall event is free and open to the public. 

Join the Washington, D.C.-metro area chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists for a roundtable on the challenges and opportunities of covering health care reform.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has teamed up with the National Library of Medicine to present the first AHCJ-NLM Fellowships. AHCJ will select four journalists to spend a week on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.

A webinar for journalists

There's little question that health reform has dominated the news this summer, but is the coverage tackling the right issues? Join us for a "Talking Health" webinar, presented by AHCJ, The Commonwealth Fund, and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, to find out what top journalists think of the coverage of this complicated policy debate.

A Workshop for Journalists on Understanding the Relationship Between Faith, Culture and Health

In advance of its annual conference, the Religion Newswriters Association is cooperating with AHCJ to put on a workshop focused on the intersection of health and faith.

At the SPJ Convention

While it's getting easier to check the quality of health care institutions, investigating the quality of health professionals still requires a lot of legwork. This session will focus on the use of public records, court documents and interviews to background the people to whom we trust with our care. Several investigative reporters who have done it well will be highlighted.

AHCJ sponsored 12 journalists to take part in a two-day workshop at the CDC about covering seasonal influenza and the A-H1N1 flu virus, now grabbing the headlines. The workshop includes a series of on-the-record sessions with CDC experts to prepare front-line journalists for the upcoming flu season.

This three-hour event is open to all AHCJ members. It's planned as a fast-moving summary of the Fox Chase Cancer Center's highlights. Most presenters will speak for 15 minutes. The subjects will range from trends in personalized medicine and women's cancer to advances in radiation oncology and robotic surgery. Fox Chase maintains these researchers are all likely to make news in the next 12 months.

A leading CDC expert on influenza, Dr. Nancy Cox, will address the Atlanta chapter. It promises to be an illuminating look at swine flu and its effects on global health. So come out, shake off the midsummer blahs and enjoy a great evening of infectious talk with your fellow health journalists.

The Association of Health Care Journalists has teamed up with the National Library of Medicine to present the first AHCJ-NLM Fellowships. AHCJ will select four journalists to spend a week on the campus of the National Institutes of Health.

The 2008-09 Midwest Health Journalism Program Fellows will attend a seminar on covering rural health issues and will officially graduate from the program.

AHCJ member Gary Schwitzer will address the challenges of writing accurate, balanced and complete stories on deadline despite biased sources and commercial pressures in the medical industry. Schwitzer will use real stories as examples to show how it doesn't take an extra thousand words of type or 10 minutes of air to write a solid medical story.

Health reform is picking up steam in Congress. A major flash point in the coming debate is whether employers and individuals should be able to obtain health insurance through a public plan that is similar to Medicare, as well as private insurance from commercial carriers.

Our next Talking Health program will feature two experts: Cathy Schoen, senior vice president for research and evaluation at The Commonwealth Fund, and Bruce M. Bullen, chief operating officer of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. They will be on hand to offer their judgments on what we can expect. Our two journalist experts, Noam Levey, a reporter at the Los Angeles Times; and Ceci Connolly, a staff writer at The Washington Post; will provide their insights and suggestions for covering what will be a major story in the coming months.

The speakers will answer questions submitted before and during the webcast.

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.

A new report examining the state of health care journalism and a survey of members of the Association of Health Care Journalists will be released. An expert panel will discuss the findings and the general topic.

Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at research and findings coming out of UC Berkeley's School of Public Health. You'll hear about leads, contacts, and valuable background for your stories in the areas of health research, new treatments for diseases, solutions to health business and policy challenges, and much more.

The fellows in the Midwest Health Journalism Program who are in Missouri will travel to Jefferson City for a series of briefings and meetings with state health policy experts.

New Date & Location!

Whether you're a staff reporter or freelancer, you've undoubtedly heard that to survive in the media in the future, you'll need to blog, podcast, and Twitter. A few writers have become conversant in online technologies and are using them to the benefit of their careers. Many of the rest of us, though, may have experimented with a blog or used Facebook to find sources for a story, but are still waiting to see how the digital revolution is really going to help our work lives. We'll explore this question with a panel of folks who are using online technology or helping others to do so.

Those Midwest Health Journalism Program Fellows who are in Kansas will go to Topeka for briefings and meetings with state health policy experts.

The 11 journalists in the the first class of AHCJ-CDC Health Journalism Fellows will spend a week studying 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.

Philadelphia-area members of the Association of Health Care Journalists can learn about an international cancer information resource based in our own backyard: OncoLink, the oldest and largest cancer information resource on the Internet founded in 1994 by University of Pennsylvania cancer specialists.

The 2008-09 Midwest Health Journalism Program fellows will visit the CDC to learn more about how that agency works, what resources it has available and how to best use those resources. The fellows also visit the Carter Center. This competitive fellowship program picks 10 journalists from Kansas and Missouri each year for special training sessions, mentoring and access to AHCJ conferences, workshops and resources.

Obama presidency: Does his health plan stand a chance?

What lies ahead for health reform? The candidates made lots of promises during the campaign and now the time has come to deliver on them. Will the new president really be able to bring insurance coverage to more Americans given the country's other financial problems and the growing deficit? Will we again fall back on an incremental approach?

Our next Talking Health program will feature two experts who have been following the politics of health reform for a long time and two journalists who will give suggestions for covering the story for the next year nationally and locally. They will be taking questions from the audience, so submit questions today!

Philadelphia's AHCJ chapter will host a free workshop on health care reporting featuring guest lecturers Gary Schwitzer, associate professor at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and publisher of HealthNewsReview.org, and Kathleen Fairfield, MD, DrPH, a medical editor with HealthNewsReview.org and clinician-scientist at Maine Medical Center. They will share their data on how news organizations have performed on 10 criteria for accurate, balanced and complete coverage; reflect on trends observed in the coverage of health care news; and provide tips about evaluating claims made about new health care treatments, tests, products and procedures. 

Jim Pickett of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago; Johnathan Briggs, foundation spokesman and former Tribune reporter; and Rev. Doris Green will discuss AIDS/HIV and the need for more prevention efforts.

AHCJ is a sponsor of the 6th Annual Missouri Health Policy Summit, hosted by the Center for Health Policy at the University of Missouri.

Dr. Arthur Kellermann, the associate dean for health policy at Emory University's School of Medicine, will be the featured speaker at this meeting of AHCJ's recently formed Atlanta chapter. Kellermann is one of the nation's leading experts on emergency medicine, ambulatory health policy and injury prevention.

Sessions will explore the health issues of children, seniors and immigrants in urban settings, as well as topics such as obesity, mental health, disaster preparedness and the mapping of local health data. Come get the tools to better investigate, understand and relate the health of your city.

This hands-on workshop will hone your skills and help you overcome the hurdles of reporting and writing quality health care stories despite biased sources and commercial pressures in the health/medical industry. We'll look at recent examples in our local media and learn tips and strategies.

Mary Chris Jaklevic, secretary of AHCJ's board of directors, hosted an informal gathering of health journalists.

Disseminating the information that comes from medical practitioners and the media is becoming more difficult. In this session health reporters and public health information officers will lead a discussion about the complicated roles of journalists and sources in this new environment and what the future may hold.

This interactive course is a resource for understanding the increasing diversity of the audiences AHCJ members serve. The e-class is the online companion to the book “Covering Health in a Multicultural Society: A Resource Guide for Journalists.”

This intensive boot camp for the 2008-09 Midwest Health Journalism Program brings the fellows together with top health care journalists for in-depth sessions on how to report on specific health care issues. This competitive fellowship program picks 10 journalists from Kansas and Missouri each year for special training sessions, mentoring and access to AHCJ conferences, workshops and resources.

Atlanta-area health journalists will gather to lay the groundwork for a local chapter.

This kick-off workshop brings the class of fellows together with experts to learn more about politics and policy, stakeholders in the health care debate and ideas for generating stories. This competitive fellowship program picks 10 journalists from Kansas and Missouri each year for special training sessions, mentoring and access to AHCJ conferences, workshops and resources. 

AHCJ, The Commonwealth Fund, and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism will present Talking Health, a webcast for members that will explore the growing problem of the underinsured – those who have insurance but are still at risk for substantial out-of-pocket expenses.

AHCJ's Chicago chapter presents this session in which attendees will learn how to address the challenges of writing accurate, balanced and complete stories on deadline despite biased sources and commercial pressures in the medical industry. The speakers will use real stories as examples to show how it doesn't take an extra thousand words of type or 10 minutes of air to write a solid medical story.

The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of AHCJ will hold this panel discussion, exploring a timely topic that deserves more local coverage. Thousands of veterans are coming home with serious injuries, especially post-traumatic stress disorder, brain trauma, and physical disabilities. Are local medical and mental health resources adequate to handle their needs?

AHCJ's Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism will present the workshop, which will focus on special health concerns of America's rural populations and how reporters can better cover them.

This conference is designed to help journalists navigate the complex scientific, medical and political issues involved with global health, to assess what's working and what's not, and make these stories meaningful to local audiences.

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.

This Chicago chapter event featured two doctors who specialize in treating addictions.

This panel will tap into cutting-edge news, research, and innovations developing in the Bay Area. If you write about any health aspect of the boomer generation, you won't want to miss this event. Panelists include Laura L. Carstensen, professor of psychology and director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, and Bay Area journalist Paul Kleyman, editor of the American Society on Aging's publication Aging Today and the national coordinator of the Journalists Exchange on Aging.

Andrew Dillon, chief executive of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, will meet with British and American reporters to discuss his agency's role in advising the UK's National Health Service on the cost-effectiveness of medical treatments, and some of the subsequent rumbles across the Atlantic.

Enjoy complimentary light refreshments and a casual, meet-and-mingle gathering. The holiday party will be hosted this year by KQED Public Radio's The California Report, producers of "Heath Dialogues."

The 2007-08 fellows will pay a visit to the Centers for Disease Control. They will take part in two days of educational sessions, briefings and tours with CDC personnel.

For the first time, Florida health reporters will gather to share tips, ideas and meet some of the state's top health regulators. The gathering also will serve as an exploratory meeting to discuss the possible formation of an AHCJ Florida Chapter. All Florida health reporters are invited. You do not have to be an AHCJ member to attend.

The Chicago chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists held an after-work gathering where AHCJ board member Mary Chris Jaklevic, who edited the new AHCJ guide "Covering Obesity: A Guide for Reporters," discussed the book and AHCJ board member Carla K. Johnson gave an update and answered questions about AHCJ nationally and in Chicago.

The New York chapter heard from five speakers about conflicts of interest in health care. The event, at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, examined how to recognize potential conflicts, including marketing vs. education, the pharmaceutical industry's gift giving to doctors and how it might affect prescribing habits and similar issues.

AHCJ - and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism - held its first Urban Health Journalism Workshop. Sessions explored the health issues of children, seniors and immigrants in urban settings, as well as obesity, mental health, disaster preparedness and the mapping of local health data.

Get MP3 and Flash presentations from the 2007 Urban Health Journalism Workshop. Topics include the health issues of children, seniors and immigrants in urban settings, as well as obesity, mental health, disaster preparedness and the mapping of local health data.

Three dozen journalists gathered at the San Francisco Chronicle for a workshop on multicultural health issues in the Bay Area.

Covering disparities in health and health care is not the same as reporting the latest drug trial or diet advice. Culture, history, money and biology intertwine to influence health and health care. This workshop builds on AHCJ's recently published multicultural health resource guide, which was supported by The California Endowment, to help you sharpen your skills, learn practical tips, and avoid lurking traps in this important, yet underreported area. Experienced journalists share their hard-earned lessons. Health experts flag common errors and misconceptions, while also providing an overview of what researchers really know.

Multimedia presentations are now available from this workshop, the third of its kind presented in California by AHCJ over the past year, was sponsored by The California Endowment. Logistical support also came from The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education.

Bay Area members gathered to hear from three panelists about "Universal health coverage in California and the U.S.: Will it happen, when, and what will it look like?"

Audio is now available from the AHCJ San Francisco Bay Area Chapter meeting on Sept. 5 at the Kaiser Family Foundation about "Universal health coverage in California and the U.S.: Will it happen, when, and what will it look like?"

Training event for the 2007-08 Midwest Health Journalism Program fellows.

Kickoff training event for the 2007-08 Midwest Health Journalism Program fellows.

Washington, D.C., members gathered for a brown-bag lunch and panel discussion on drug safety regulation and the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), which is currently in conference committee in Congress.

The Chicago chapter will meet at 6 p.m. at Columbia College to hear about the future of health care reform from two speakers.

This innovative simulation will hone your critical-thinking skills and give you the beat-specific knowledge needed to cover the hospitals in your community. You will be a rookie health beat reporter, investigating local hospitals on deadline, working with your editor to find the focus of your story and craft the lead. You'll tap into the same tools that you'll use on the job, and you'll have a virtual "mentor" to walk you through the maze of reports, statistics and sources. As the simulation progresses, you'll uncover additional sources, and the story you thought was unfolding might take unexpected turns.

AHCJ and the Kaiser Family Foundation hosted this interactive roundtable webcast on March 6, 2007. Trudy Lieberman, president of AHCJ's board of directors, moderates a panel of experts discussing what journalists need to know about covering SCHIP.

With the State Children's Health Insurance Plan (SCHIP) up for reauthorization, this roundtable - a partnership between the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Kaiser Family Foundation - focuses on what journalists need to know about covering SCHIP in their states. Health reform proposals announced by would-be presidential candidates call for expanding coverage through SCHIP.

Hospital emergency rooms are under siege. Some inner city hospitals are losing on-call specialists to treat severely injured patients or must pay high prices to keep them. In some parts of the country, ambulance diversions are continuing. So are wallet biopsies which telegraph to hospitals who can pay and who cannot. Changes to Medicaid mandated by the Deficit Reduction Act could affect the care those on Medicaid will receive. Technology and emergency room care will become more expensive, raising the question: “Who will fund this place of last resort as the move to market-driven health care rushes ahead? “

Bay Area health care writers, editors, reporters and authors gathered at the 13 Views bar at the top of the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero for a Health Journalism Schmooze.

A roundtable focusing on the new Medicare prescription drug benefit known as Part D, designed to help Medicare beneficiaries pay for their medications.

This roundtable focuses on health savings accounts and related approaches advocated by the Bush Administration and others to address rising health care costs and lack of coverage for the uninsured. Webcast and transcript available.