
Madhusoodanan joins AHCJ as its first program manager. She will work to streamline AHCJ’s varied fellowship programs, helping journalists grow by providing them with training and opportunities that give them time, resources and support to dive deeper into health reporting. She was previously the Doris Duke Racial Equity in Clinical Equations Civic Science Fellow at AHCJ. Madhusoodanan has been an independent journalist for more than 10 years, covering science and health for The New York Times, Scientific American, Nature, Undark magazine, and many other outlets. Her work has been supported by fellowships and grants from MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Program, the Alicia Patterson Foundation, the Pulitzer Center, and others. Her story on a new class of cancer drugs received the 2025 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) June L. Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism, and her reporting on health equity was recognized by the South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA) Award for Outstanding Range of Reporting in 2024. She is an alumnus of the University of Santa Cruz science journalism program and holds a doctorate in microbiology. Madhusoodanan also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Science Writers.
Heart disease remains one of the leading causes of death amongst adults in the U.S., and a recent study projects…
Researchers say that an updated lung function equation used to decide eligibility for some jobs and disability benefits will affect…
Algorithms with a variable for race could — under certain conditions — help reduce health disparities surrounding colorectal cancer.
McFarling’s reporting on race-free equations and broader issues of race in medicine earned her the 2024 Bernard Lo, M.D. Award…
This March, the government announced a new race and ethnicity category in the U.S. Census: Middle Eastern or North African…
Cornell Professor Jeff Niederdeppe speaks with AHCJ about how journalists can improve their coverage of health disparities.
Journalists’ framing of racial differences in health can sway readers’ perception of their own health risks.