Author Archives: Mary Chris Jaklevic

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About Mary Chris Jaklevic

Mary Chris Jaklevic is AHCJ's topic leader for patient safety. She has been a contributor to HealthNewsReview.org, a project that aimed to improve health care journalism by critiquing the accuracy and balance of media messages about medical interventions, and was an AHCJ board member from 2005 to 2009.

Panelists endorse collaborative ‘prebunking’ to stop toxic misinformation 

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Washington Post reporter and panel moderator Lauren Weber, talks to JAMA Editor in Chief Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo and co-moderator, Kaiser Family Foundation Senior Fellow Irving Washington, during the “Malignant misinformation: The quest for a ‘cure'” roundtable discussion and awards luncheon at HJ23 in St. Louis. The second panelist, Garth Graham, M.D., global head of health care and public health at Google/YouTube, is not pictured, but participated via Zoom. (Photo by Zachary Linhares)

Scientific knowledge is no match for entrenched misinformation, JAMA Editor in Chief Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, M.D., told a luncheon crowd at Health Journalism 2023 on Saturday, March 11 in St. Louis. Just look at ivermectin.

JAMA recently published the fourth big, randomized trial to find that the antiparasitic medication doesn’t improve COVID symptoms. Yet Bibbins-Domingo said she is aware that no amount of high-quality evidence will quash persistent claims that ivermectin is a COVID miracle cure. At the same time, she said, ethical questions arise when researchers continue to study what many consider to be settled science.

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Mary Chris Jaklevic is AHCJ's topic leader for patient safety. She has been a contributor to HealthNewsReview.org, a project that aimed to improve health care journalism by critiquing the accuracy and balance of media messages about medical interventions, and was an AHCJ board member from 2005 to 2009.

What to know about the state of patient safety

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Photo by RODNAE Productions via pexels.

In the last year many prominent voices have raised alarms about deficiencies in patient safety, just as staffing shortages have heightened concerns about harm due to inadequate care.

Here are five key points that have emerged.

1. Measures of patient safety worsened during the pandemic.

Rates of some hospital-associated infections tracked by the CDC increased in 2020 and 2021 following several years of improvement. Data show that falls and bed sores also increased.

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Mary Chris Jaklevic is AHCJ's topic leader for patient safety. She has been a contributor to HealthNewsReview.org, a project that aimed to improve health care journalism by critiquing the accuracy and balance of media messages about medical interventions, and was an AHCJ board member from 2005 to 2009.

Journalist offers tips for investigating private equity firms

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Fred Schulte

Editor’s note: This is the second of two posts on covering private equity.

Lack of transparency is a giant hurdle in reporting on the growing influence of private equity in health care.

Reporters covering public corporations can easily obtain periodic financial reports and ownership disclosures that are filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Information about the finances and public benefits of nonprofit hospitals is readily available via the IRS’s Form 900.

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Mary Chris Jaklevic is AHCJ's topic leader for patient safety. She has been a contributor to HealthNewsReview.org, a project that aimed to improve health care journalism by critiquing the accuracy and balance of media messages about medical interventions, and was an AHCJ board member from 2005 to 2009.

Journalists intensify coverage of the harms of private equity 

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Photo via Canva

Critical coverage of private equity firms — which buy companies and restructure their operations in order to quickly sell them for a profit— has been picking up.

In the last six months:

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Mary Chris Jaklevic is AHCJ's topic leader for patient safety. She has been a contributor to HealthNewsReview.org, a project that aimed to improve health care journalism by critiquing the accuracy and balance of media messages about medical interventions, and was an AHCJ board member from 2005 to 2009.