The three stories detail the unintended consequences of efforts by companies, government and health providers to use technology to improve American health care. Significant gains in how genomics, computerized technology and the Internet are used by providers and patients have led to advances in care, but also bring new risks. In the first story in the series, on advances in prenatal testing for Down syndrome and other chromosomal disorders, the reporter unearthed little-noticed, but telling, cases of inaccurate results that undermine claims made by the tests’ makers, even as the medical establishment seemed on course to widely adopt the new tests. The second story used public records requests and aggressive follow-up reporting to identify specific cases in which computer malware infected medical devices, putting patients at risk. While the possibility of malware attacks on medical devices had been widely speculated, earlier coverage focused on laboratory demonstrations rather than the real-world scenarios detailed in the story. In the third story, on the rollout of HealthCare.gov, exclusive access to people close to the situation revealed key ongoing problems that resulted in consumers being steered to the wrong health care programs under the health overhaul, weeks after the federal government announced that efforts to fix the site had been successful.
