About AHCJ: General News

Boston named as Health Journalism 2013 site Date: 05/24/12

Health Journalism 2013, the annual conference of the Association of Health Care Journalists, will take place in Boston next year, AHCJ has announced.

The conference, which has drawn more than 600 attendees in each of the last two years, will take place March 14-17, 2013, at the Seaport Boston Hotel and the adjacent Seaport World Trade Center. The hotel and conference center are located on the Boston waterfront in the growing Seaport District.

A local planning committee is being formed by Boston Globe health and science editor – and AHCJ board member – Gideon Gil. It will be made up of area journalists from print, broadcast and online outlets.

“The group will help national conference organizers pinpoint a wide range of topics and experts to be included in the program,” Gil said.

Local support is already strong, said AHCJ Executive Director Len Bruzzese.

So far, local hosts include Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Public Health, Boston University and Children’s Hospital Boston, he said. Also signing on as local sponsors are Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Center. Even more have expressed an interest, he said.

“With the abundance of health expertise in the Boston area, we anticipate a tremendous educational opportunity next spring for journalists from around the world,” Bruzzese said.

AHCJ just completed its 2012 conference last month in Atlanta. The event included dozens of news-making sessions, including those by former President Jimmy Carter, First Lady Rosalynn Carter, American Cancer Society medical chief Otis Brawley and Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Research and Evaluation.

AHCJ is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. With more than 1,300 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. Its offices are based at the Missouri School of Journalism.