1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
Consumer health beat coverage by reporter JoNel Aleccia.
"When vets make mistakes, pets pay the price"
"Medical bills? Christian co-ops rely on faith"
"Infected organs pose deadly transplant risk"
"When vital drugs run out, patients pay the price"
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Vets: Feb. 10, 2010,
Christian co-ops: April 14, 2010
Infected organs: June 11, 2010
Vital drugs: Oct. 27, 2010
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
At MSNBC.com, reporter JoNel Aleccia has crafted the consumer health beat to discover, analyze and explain pressing health issues with significant impact in readers' daily lives. In these four representative stories, Aleccia exposed the lack of regulation and accountability for veterinarians who make medical errors; revealed a little-known provision of the Health Policy law that exempts faith-based medical exchanges from 'play-or-pay' insurance mandates; reported on growing rates of infections transmitted by transplanted organs; and was the first national outlet to report on an alarming shortage of vital drugs in the United States.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
Aleccia relied on the full range of private and public data sources and documents available to report these stories. She obtained disciplinary records from state veterinary groups to analyze pet medical errors and previously unpublished FDA data to report on drug shortages. Because Freedom of Information requests typically are not fulfilled in anything near a timely fashion, Aleccia works around those limitations and accessed data through negotiations with sources rather than forced requests. It affects the work by allowing publication far faster, with none of the restrictions or redactions that sometimes plague FOI requests.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
Aleccia also relied on the full range of human sources available in reporting: subject matter experts, government officials, skeptics and, of course, people who embodied the issue or condition under consideration.
6. Results (if any).
Because of prodding by Aleccia's reporting on the drug shortage issue, drug safety advocates, government officials, drugmakers and other stakeholders convened a "summit" to discuss solutions to the problem.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
No corrections or clarifications were required for any of these stories.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
I'd advise other journalists covering a consumer health beat to remember to keep the consumer as the main focus of all stories. Issues such as veterinary errors on a beloved pet, shortages of vital drugs to combat cancer, rare risks of organ transplant and faith-based health care all resonate deeply in daily lives.