Please welcome our newest members of AHCJ.
All new members are welcome to stop by this post’s comment section to introduce themselves. Continue reading
Welcome AHCJ’s newest members
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New FOIA tip sheet can help you get the government information you need
Image by EpicTop10.com via Flickr
Several freelancer members of AHCJ have asked for a tip sheet about making Freedom of Information Act/open records requests to federal, state and local government agencies. I have filed only a few such requests in my journalism career, so I reached out to an expert, subject librarian Katy Boss at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.
Boss regularly helps journalism students file FOIA (federal government) and FOIL (state and local government) requests in New York (often referred to as Sunshine Law or open records requests in other states) and has written a clear and helpful guide. AHCJ has reprinted a lightly edited version as a tip sheet. At the bottom, I included links to the FOIA webpages of federal agencies of particular interest to health care journalists and links to two websites that provide open records information for every state. Continue reading
Apps for substance use disorders, other conditions, may not be as private as we think
Sara Morrison
About one in five Americans report using mobile health applications (apps), according to survey data published by Gallup in 2019. But users may not necessarily be aware that the personal information they enter in those apps frequently is shared with third-party vendors that make some of those apps’ features.
In a recent article for Vox’s Recode, tech reporter Sara Morrison took a deep dive into data privacy — or a potential lack thereof — among mobile apps for substance use disorders, with implications for all health apps. She also covered the outdated laws that allow developers to share users’ information, often without full disclosure. Continue reading
New and updated freelance market guides now available
Photo: Raul Pacheco-Vega via Flickr
It’s been a busy month getting market guides ready for the AHCJ website. I’d like to give a shout-out to Joseph Burns, AHCJ’s core topic leader for insurance, and to freelance medical writer and editor Erin Boyle for their help.
Three new freelance market guides and one updated guide have been posted on the AHCJ website. The guides for the Well section of The New York Times (created by Joseph), Cancer Today (created by Erin), and Next Avenue are new, and the Undark market guide is an update.
Our Freelance topic page now features 19 market guides, with more coming every month. Not all of them have been updated, but I’m working on that. Please email me with suggestions of publications you would like to see. Continue reading
Researcher and advocate for reproductive health equity tells her own story
Courtesy of Jallicia Jolly
When Jallicia Jolly gave birth to her first child, Rose, in February, she experienced some of the disparities in care she studies and writes about in her academic life.
Her essay published in USA Today, “I survived childbirth during three pandemics – COVID, racism, Black maternal health crisis,” places her own mistreatment at the hands of an anesthesiologist in the context of maternal health care across the country. “In looking back at my own experience giving birth to my healthy daughter, I am reminded of the stories of Black women who have received substandard care in health care systems and whose needs are deprioritized — and didn’t live to tell their own stories,” she writes. Continue reading