Health Journalism 2010:
Discounted early-bird registration extended

The hotel room block is nearly full so make your reservation right away.
Conference schedule is available.
Early-bird registration ends March 22.
Read more about the conference.

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. You'll walk away with both immediate and longer-term story ideas, meet new 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 great hotel contract has been signed with the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place offering a $139 room rate to our attendees.

"... look at the broad topic of health as a thick thread that runs through just about every newsroom beat." (Photo: parl via Flickr)

Veteran editor offers tips for finding health stories on any beat

In newsrooms across the country that are shedding staff, teams of health and medical reporters have been reduced to a solitary, overworked journalist left to cover the gamut of health-related stories – a beat too big for any one person.

Others can help fill the void if they are attuned to how health and medical stories intersect with their own beats and how such stories touch the lives of real people. All reporters and assignment editors should look at the broad topic of health as a thick thread that runs through just about every newsroom beat.

This tip sheet, from California Watch's Mark Katches, is a primer for editors and reporters to start thinking differently about their beat coverage and to identify health stories on "non-health" beats. It includes a list of ideas, resources and tips for finding health stories on any beat compiled from experienced reporters for their tips on finding health stories, no matter what beat you normally cover.

AHCJ calls for better information from Joint Commission Web site

AHCJ 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. In a letter, AHCJ suggests improvements to the commission's Quality Check Web site, where many people go to find out whether to trust their local hospital. The Web site also is a potentially useful tool for health-care journalists. "In a time of change in health care, the ability to do comprehensive research on local hospitals is more important than ever before," the association's letter said.

Health and education: Covering these intersecting beats

Almost everywhere on the education beat, from the state policy level to inside classrooms, health issues abound. Cover education long enough and you’re likely to write about physical education classes or sex education, school nurses or school lunches.

Dallas Morning News education reporter Holly Hacker writes about how to cover the stories that intersect on the education and health beats – things including childhood obesity and physical activity, sex education classes, children with disabilities, alcohol and drug abuse and infectious diseases.

The accompanying list of resources and story ideas should help reporters find and cover those stories that intersect on the education and health beats – things including childhood obesity and physical activity, sex education classes, children with disabilities, alcohol and drug abuse and infectious diseases.

Get connected with AHCJ

Fan, friend or Twitter with AHCJ: Join the 1,750 people who are following AHCJ on Twitter: follow AHCJ_Pia. AHCJ members can join the group on LinkedIn, a professional networking Web site that can help you connect with colleagues. Or, on Facebook, sign up to be a "fan" of AHCJ and interact with other fans as well as get updates about AHCJ events and news via Facebook. Tips about Twitter for health journalists: More and more journalists and people in communications are using Twitter, an Internet-based microblogging service. However, Twitter can be difficult to understand at first and many journalists wonder just how they would use it. Here are some tips especially for health journalists on using Twitter.

Ethics in hard times:
Panel for science and health journalists

This recent panel, co-sponsored by AHCJ and Science Writers of New York, discussed some of the content partnerships and sponsorships that have emerged in the past year among news outlets and government agencies and businesses. Often, the justification for these partnerships is to get science news to the public during a time of limited resources.

The panel of journalists looked at how concerned we should be about such partnerships and similar initiatives and how they relate to today's economy and media contraction. They also considered whether it is more challenging in a recession to maintain ethics and if news organizations can still offer strong journalism when we enter partnerships and sponsorships with government, industry and academia.

Health journalists cite uneven disclosure of H1N1 deaths across country

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.

In some places, health officials have held press conferences at which they released age, gender, city of residence and the place and time of death. In other places, officials have refused to reveal the age or gender of people who have died. Some states update tallies of deaths on their Web sites, others issue press releases, some release information only if asked and some remain silent even when asked.

Major journalism groups demand FDA end newsgathering constraints

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.

AHCJ, 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.

Childhood obesity:
Expert, journalist discuss solutions, strategies to cover

Changing behavior and educating people about food is key to helping children become fit and avoid obesity, according to the San Francisco pediatrician who spoke at a recent panel organized by the Bay Area chapter of AHCJ. The panel featured a doctor who is trying to find solutions to the epidemic of childhood obesity and a journalist who has covered the culture of overeating.

Journalist Elaine Herscher, an author and senior managing editor at Consumer Health Interactive, offered a number of story ideas for reporters. Read more and listen to the panel.

New slim guide: Covering the Health of Local Nursing Homes

Check out AHCJ’s latest volume in its ongoing Slim Guide series. This reporting guide gives a head start to journalists who want to pursue stories about one of the most vulnerable populations – nursing home residents. It offers advice about Web sites, datasets, research and other resources. After reading this book, journalists can have more confidence in deciphering nursing home inspection reports, interviewing advocacy groups on all sides of an issue, locating key data, and more. The book includes story examples and ideas.

AHCJ publishes these reporting guides, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to help journalists understand and accurately report on specific subjects.

Aging in the 21st Century

Get tip sheets and speaker presentations.
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. AHCJ's Aging in the 21st Century workshop in Miami featured experts to help reporters understand what they should be reporting on now. Special speakers included Donna Shalala, Ph.D., president of the University of Miami and former HHS secretary, who kicked off the workshop talking about what health reform could mean to senior health; and David Kessler, M.D., a professor in the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine and former commissioner of the FDA, who discussed nutrition at the Saturday luncheon.

DATA

Investigating hospitals: Find stories with ready-to-use Hospital Compare data

How do your local hospitals stack against their competitors, others in your state and hospitals across the country? When HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt unveiled a patient survey database at the AHCJ conference in March, members filed story after story about their local hospitals. Now, AHCJ has made it easier for journalists to compare hospitals in their regions by generating spreadsheet files from the HHS database, allowing members to compare more than a few hospitals at a time, using spreadsheet or database software. AHCJ provides key documentation and explanatory material to help you understand the data possibilities and limits. Need help in analyzing Excel files? AHCJ offers a tutorial about investigating health data using spreadsheets.

Easier-to-use Nursing Home Compare data

AHCJ has taken key elements from the federal Nursing Home Compare database and put them into a more manageable format in Excel spreadsheets. This allows members to quickly analyze the most recent Nursing Home Compare data for local stories about ratings or violations. For additional help for members, AHCJ created a tip sheet about summarizing spreadsheets to create categories and counts. AHCJ has made it easy to see when the data was last updated, what the star rating of a facility is, identifies serious violations and whether a violation was cited during a routine survey or after a complaint.

MEMBER BENEFITS

Photo by dbdbrobot via Flickr.

Directory of freelance health journalists

Looking for a freelancer with expertise in a specific area of health? Are you a freelancer trying to get your expertise known? Take a look at our just-updated AHCJ Freelance Directory to choose from more than 60 highly experienced health journalists!

Freelance members of AHCJ are invited to list their specialties, post résumés, bios, Web links – even story clips. The handy state-by-state directory allows hiring editors to zero in on geography or expertise to find the perfect candidate to approach for work. And it’s free for both AHCJ freelancers and hiring editors!

AHCJ offers mentoring program to its members

Although AHCJ has long been known for its supportive network of members, this year we are launching a more formal program to link members seeking some guidance with members who have recognized expertise in specific areas. This will be especially helpful to those new to the beat or those who have had health coverage added to an already long list of duties. The number of members we are able to assist will depend upon the number of long-time health care journalists within our ranks willing to share some of their time as mentors. Sign up today!

‘Downsized’ members can take advantage of AHCJ program

Although AHCJ membership continued to increase over the past 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. AHCJ's board and staff believe it's important to retain all the talented professionals who make up our membership. With that in mind, AHCJ is announcing a Transition Assistance Program 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.

SLIM GUIDES

AHCJ's slim guides walk reporters through specific topics, highlighting resources, story ideas, tips from experience journalists and stories that others have done well. Titles in the series include:
• Covering the Health of Local Nursing Homes
• Navigating the CDC: A Journalist’s Guide to the CDC Web Site
• Covering Obesity: A Guide for Reporters
• Covering Hospitals: Using Tools on the Web

AHCJ publishes these reporting guides, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to help journalists understand and accurately report on specific subjects.