Why do some journalists have thousands of followers and others barely a handful? Is it better to tweet, ‘gram or Facebook? What about Snapchat? Should you have separate personal and professional accounts? What’s the best way to deal with trolls and negativity? Attendees at Health Journalism 2018 learned how to up their social media game from those who do it well — and how to avoid potential problems — at the “Freelance: Flex your social media muscle” session on April 14.
Photo: Tom Spaulding via Flickr
Bernie Sanders gave renewed life to the single-payer movement, and it’s likely to play in the 2018 and 2020 elections.
But how will we talk about it? What does “single-payer” mean? Can the United States ever achieve it? Should it? Those were some of the questions raised at the Health Journalism 2018 session in Phoenix, “Is single-payer on the table?” moderated by Julie Appleby, an AHCJ board member and Kaiser Health News correspondent. Continue reading
Photo: Circle the CityA Circle the City Medical Respite Center patient interacts with a therapy dog. The center is a 50-bed facility serving ill and injured adults experiencing homelessness.
PHOENIX – Lack of housing is a significant health issue in the United States that is shortening the life expectancy of the nation’s growing homeless population.
“If you don’t have a house you’re at much greater risk of dying sooner,” said Stacey Millet, director of Health Impact Project during the Housing, Homelessness and Health session on April 13 at Health Journalism 2018. Continue reading
Photo: Bara VaidaMichael Foley, M.D., shows AHCJ members, how to “deliver” a baby at University of Arizona College of Medicine in Phoenix. The school uses robotic dummies to simulate real-life situations so that medical students can practice care delivery before working on real people.
PHOENIX – Seventeen members of the Association of Health Care Journalists watched a simulated birth and viewed a giant brain mass through 3D glasses as part of a whirlwind tour of three Phoenix-area health care institutions on Thursday.
The tour was one of two field trips offered by AHCJ at its annual conference. Journalists visited the cancer center at Mayo Clinic-Phoenix, Banner-University Medical Center Phoenix, and the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix.
During the jam-packed day, Mayo Clinic officials showed off photon beam therapy and provided a tour of its cancer center, including its Precision Neurotherapeutics lab. Continue reading
Photo: George Bush Presidential Library via FlickrFormer First Lady Barbara Bush, who died Tuesday, announced two days earlier that she had ended curative treatment for life-threatening health issues in favor of what was described as “comfort care.”
Death may be the price we pay for life. But many physicians still regard death as a kind of failure. For families and patients, decisions about the management of serious illness and death can seem forbidding and difficult.
Even so, timely discussion of options such as palliative care and hospice care can offer deeply meaningful choices to people navigating life-threatening and terminal illnesses, according to experts on “The Increasing Demand for Palliative Care,” panel last week during Health Journalism 2018 in Phoenix.
“The model I am trying to promote … is earlier conversation,” said Robert Shannon, M.D., assistant professor of family medicine and palliative medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Jacksonville, Fla. Continue reading