About AHCJ: General News

2012 Health Performance Fellows named Date: 12/15/11

COLUMBIA, Mo. – 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 2012 fellows will be:

• John George, a health care reporter for the Philadelphia Business Journal. George will focus on the state of obstetrics services in the Philadelphia area.

• Margot Sanger-Katz, a health care correspondent for the National Journal in Washington, D.C. Sanger-Katz will examine the growing pattern of hospital consolidation and its influence on health care costs and the future of health reform.

• Tammy Worth, a Kansas City-area freelance writer. Worth will produce articles about health care delivery to uninsured undocumented immigrants.

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 fellows will continue in their current roles during the coming year, but also receive customized training, mentoring and financial support for field reporting and conference and workshop attendance. They are expected to complete significant and unique reporting projects by the end of 2012.

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. With more than 1,200 members across the United States and around the globe, its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. The association and its Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism provide training, resources and a professional home for journalists. Offices are based at the Missouri School of Journalism.

The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable. The Fund carries out this mandate by supporting independent research on health care issues and making grants to improve health care practice and policy.