Career Development: Fellowships, Internships, Training & Grants

AHCJ International Health Study Fellowships

The AHCJ International Health Study Fellowships is a six-month program allowing veteran U.S.-based health care journalists to pursue a story or project comparing a facet of the U.S. health care system to that of another country. For 2020, the focus will be on developed European countries in comparison with the United States’ health care system.

Fellows pursue the projects with the support of their newsrooms or freelance outlets, which commit to publish or air the work. The project could evaluate a key component of the health care system, a health outcome, access, performance, providers, efficiency or other focal point.

Guidance is provided by AHCJ fellowship leaders through customized seminars, conference calls and email consultations. The fellowship covers the cost of traveling to the seminars and the international reporting sites, as well as lodging and meal and incidental expense stipends.

The fellowship program is supported by The Commonwealth Fund. 

See details about applying for the fellowship.

Check back in Fall 2020.

Questions? Contact Susan Cunningham, susan@healthjournalism.org or 573-882-2203.

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2020 fellows

Read the press release.

Click on the fellows' names to see their projects.

April Dembosky, health reporter, KQED-San Francisco (@adembosky)

Elana Gordon, health and science reporter/producer, The World/Public Radio International (@Elana_Gordon)

• What Oregon can learn from Portugal about decriminalizing drugs

Michele Cohen Marill, freelancer writing for Health Affairs (@MicheleCMarill)

• From Rural Germany, Integrated Care Grows Into A Global Model

Robert Weisman, age beat reporter, The Boston Globe (@GlobeRobW)

2019 fellows

Read the press release. (Click names to see their projects.)

Arthur Allen, eHealth editor, Politico (@ArthurAllen202)

• Allen has compared the implementation of health IT in the United States with efforts in Denmark and the United Kingdom.

• Lost in translation: Epic goes to Denmark

• In the UK, health care is national and popular. Its health IT is a Balkanized mess

Karen Bouffard, health care reporter, The Detroit News (@kbouffardDN)

• Bouffard studied what the United States might learn from Norway’s approaches to the overlap of mental health and criminal justice.

• Norway's lessons for Mich.'s prisons: How kinder prisons and more mental health services reduce incarceration in Norway.

• Fatal assault exposes shortages: Group home death in Wayne demonstrates lack of beds for psychiatric care.

• Mentally ill teen caught in system: Darian Smith-Blackmon was found incompetent to stand trial, but he awaits a psychiatric bed.

• Why psychotic killers get care, not prison time in Norway

• Treatment team sees successes: At-home care, peer support, help speed recovery for those diagnosed with mental health issues.

• Woodland treats Mich.’s severely ill: The Whitmore Lake prison offers art and music therapy to help stabilize mentally ill prisoners.

• One inmate's story: Growing up ill: Christopher Goike talks about his mental disorders and his treatment at the Woodland Center.

• Treatment courts look to rehab: State's 188 'problem-solving' courts help veterans and those with mental health or substance issues.

• States look to Norway model: North Dakota, Oregon offer Michigan examples of how to create more effective prisons.

• Why we produced this special report: Reporter Karen Bouffard traveled to Norway to study that country's model of rehabilitative justice.

Noam Levey, national health care reporter, Los Angeles Times (@NoamLevey)

• Levey examined whether Germany’s fairly recent shift in how it handles prescription drug pricing holds any lessons for the United States.

• German patients get the latest drugs for just $11. Can such a model work in the U.S.?

• Americans’ struggles with medical bills are a foreign concept in other countries

Alex B. Smith, health reporter, KCUR-Kansas City/NPR (@AlexSmithKCUR)

• Smith studied whether efforts in the U.K. to combat social isolation might serve as examples for similar cities, towns and rural areas in the United States.

• Loneliness is killing you (series)

• Safety Net Cuts, Not Just Modern Life, Are Making People Lonely, Critics Say

• Young Urban People Are Lonelier Than Old Rural Folks, And Social Media Doesn’t Help

• The Friendly Midwest Is In A Loneliness Crisis And The British May Have The Solution

• Americans Are A Lonely Lot, And Young People Bear The Heaviest Burden

• How to be less lonely