Health Journalism 2008

03/27/08 - 03/30/08     Washington, DC

Highlights:

• Keynote speaker Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards will address attendees at the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism Luncheon.

• Newsmaker Briefing: A candid conversation with actor Dennis Quaid, whose twins were recently the victims of a medical error.

• Newsmaker briefing with Michael Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Hospital Quality Alliance and Leavitt will make a major announcement Friday at Health Journalism 2008. To help you put the material in context, we have added two breakfast briefings in the morning at which officials will discuss the announcement and what it means for consumers. The comments from the briefing are EMBARGOED until 3 p.m. Eastern time to coincide with the secretary's address. The breakfast briefings are for conference registrants only. The secretary's press conference is open to credentialed press.

• Newsmaker briefing: Public health blueprint for tackling climate change with Georges Benjamin, M.D., executive director of the American Public Health Association, and other public health experts.

• Field trips: Choose from two outstanding field trips

• Special workshop on mapping health

• A Freelance PitchFest in which writers will have an opportunity to pitch ideas to assigning editors

• A Friday luncheon and roundtable discussion on Election 2008 and health reform

... as well as dozens of panel sessions on medical research, public health, the business of health, consumer health issues and journalism techniques.

More than 400 people attended last year's conference and some events generated immediate stories and sources for our members.

Hosted by:

Georgetown University Medical Center
and Georgetown University Hospital

Endowing Sponsor:

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Sponsors include:

American Journal of Nursing
California HealthCare Foundation
The California Endowment
The California Wellness Foundation
The Commonwealth Fund
Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making
Johns Hopkins Institutions
Kaiser Family Foundation
Missouri Foundation for Health
Montefiore Medical Center
Picker Institute
RTI International

If you have hotel or general conference questions, please contact Ev Ruch-Graham, training coordinator, ev@healthjournalism.org or 573-884-8103. If you have registration questions, please contact Christy Stretz, membership coordinator, christy@healthjournalism.org or 573-882-2955.