Career Development : Calendar

Business of Health Care Workshop

10/27/11 - 10/28/11     San Francisco, CA

Business of Health Care Workshop
Speakers' Materials
Hotel
Agenda
Registration

Oct. 27 & 28, 2011 ♦ San Francisco

Workshop hastag for Twitter: #ahcjbiz

AHCJ's Business of Health Care Workshop provided resources, skills and ideas that journalists can apply to their jobs immediately. Attendees learned how to cover this tremendous economic engine beyond the routine stories, with tools to find essential information your audiences need, crossing the traditional beats of health, business and government. Panel topics included:

  • Tapping the holy grail of hospital data
  • Using online tools for journalists to visualize data
  • The effect of the economy and reform on health businesses
  • The insurance battles ahead
  • Lunch with futurist and author Ian Morrison
  • Medicare at a crossroads
  • The future of drug companies
  • Electronic medical records: Promised land or mirage?
  • Deciphering finances in local health care
  • Innovations in care and costs

Tip sheets, handouts, video and photos from the workshop will be posted in the coming days.

The workshop is just $40 for journalists and $30 for students.

Optional hands-on data sessions

One will cover data from California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development. California journalists will find this particularly useful, but it also introduces data sets that journalists can request in other states. A working knowledge of Excel is necessary to get the full benefit of this session, but newcomers are welcome too. Attendees should bring their laptops with Excel or similar spreadsheet software.

The day’s second session will walk through techniques to combine Google tools with health data to create online maps and charts you can tailor. You’ll learn how, with a combination of a spreadsheet you upload, Google Fusion Tables and do some basic data formatting to create a map you can use with your online project. To make the most of this session, make sure you have a Google (gmail) account, then bring your laptop with spreadsheet software and a Web browser.

The afternoon will end with a light reception. The Thursday classes require an additional $20 fee. See registration form.

Travel assistance

AHCJ has a limited amount of travel assistance available. The stipends are meant to defray travel costs only. For more information, fill out and submit this form, or contact Christy Stretz at 573-884-5606 or Christy@healthjournalism.org.