Tip Sheets
One big-ass(arse) database (Maurice Tamman presentation)
Panel: Localizing national health investigations (Health Journalism 2011)
Speaker: Maurice Tamman, news editor, The Wall Street Journal
Tamman shares information from that paper's "Secrets of the System" series and the closed federal database it was based upon: Under a three-decade-old court order, Medicare can't publish the billings of individual physicians who participate in the program. His presentation shows what's in the data, how they went about standardizing and analyzing it and more.
Panel description: Newsrooms with large staffs and big budgets can devote months or even years to major projects. During this session, three award-winning journalists will discuss how you can localize major national investigations and achieve significant local impact. Our discussion will center primarily on radiation errors/ harm, Medicare spending/fraud and dialysis center quality, but our panelists will give tips on how even small newsrooms can craft meaningful investigative work.