Association of Health Care Journalists

Successful aging at home: what reporters should know
2022-01-26 01:00 (America/New_York)
SAVE THE DATE: Jan. 26, noon ET
Nearly 90% of older adults want to remain in their home or community as they age, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Aging at home, or in the community, can help reduce health costs and improve outcomes. But it also requires more affordable housing, additional home and community services, better integration of these supports in the health system, and advanced planning by seniors and their families to create a safe, suitable environment. For some, it may also mean finding a different community-based solution.
Webcast panelists will discuss “aging in the right place,” what it means for the future of health care, and what older adults and families can do now to get ready for the future.
View the webcast
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Katelyn Jetelina
Joshua Schiffer
Liz Seegert
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Stephen M. Golant, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Florida (Gainesville) and was earlier associate professor at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on the housing, mobility, long-term care, and technology needs of older adults. Dr. Golant is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a Fulbright Senior Scholar award recipient. In 2012, he received the Richard M. Kalish award from the Gerontological Society of America in recognition of his insightful and innovative publications on aging and life development in the behavioral and social sciences. Dr. Golant has written or edited more than 140 papers and books. His latest book, Aging in the Right Place, was recently published by Health Professions Press.

Krithika Srivats is the SVP of Clinical Practice and Product Innovation for HGS AxisPoint Health, an HGS Company, having served in the role for over 11 years. She is an accomplished, driven and results-oriented healthcare professional with 25 years of diverse experience in patient care, strategic disease management in the field of Alzheimer’s and related dementias, and healthcare technology and integrated solutions in medical management and population health management. As an occupational therapist, Krithika believes in holistic person-centric care, which is reflected in all facets of her approach to solutions and issue resolution. Kritika’s key accomplishments include setting up first of its kind day care and specialized dementia care in India, USA and WA, working closely with the local health departments, and the centers of excellence. Her focus on functional independence to building resilience has been translated in the innovative products and aging in place solutions.

Andrea King Collier is an award-winning journalist and author based in Lansing, Mich. Collier has been writing about health and health policy issues for the past 20 years. In the last few years she has also cast her eye on food and food systems. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, The Lansing State Journal and the PostTribune. Her work appears regularly in Essence, More, Ladies Home Journal, Woman’s Day, O, the Oprah Magazine, Real Health, Heart Healthy Living, Heart Insights, the National Medical Association Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, AARP Magazine, More, and others. She is the author of two award winning books, The Black Woman’s Guide to Black Men’s Health, and Still With Me… A Daughter’s Journey of Love and Loss.

Moderator: Liz Seegert, AHCJ topic leader/aging

Reporting on the care and costs of diabetes
2022-02-16 01:00
SAVE THE DATE: Feb. 16, 1 p.m. ET
High costs for doctor’s visits, medications and supplies force many diabetes patients to forgo or delay routine care. Patients and lawmakers have expressed outrage at the rising price of insulin, which Type 1 diabetes patients must take their entire lives and is sometimes required to keep Type 2 patients’ disease under control. Last month, the National Clinical Care Commission endorsed limiting insulin price increases to the rate of inflation.
Experts in the care and costs of diabetes will debate the need for a more comprehensive approach to this deadly disease and outline some of the ways the U.S. health care system can make care for patients with diabetes more affordable.
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Karen Van Nuys
Ted Doolittle
Sanjoy Dutta
Estelle Everett
Joseph Burns

Karen Van Nuys, Ph.D., focuses on funding in the pharmaceutical supply chain and the effect of commercial practices such as copay coupons and copay clawbacks on the cost of prescription drugs. Her work has been published in leading journals in economics, medicine, finance and health policy. In addition to her work at the USC Schaeffer Center, she is also a research assistant professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy.

Ted Doolittle is an attorney and former federal prosecutor who has had a long career in health care, legal practice and law enforcement, including service as the Deputy Director of the Center for Program Integrity at federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS). In this role, Doolittle had oversight of Medicare and Medicaid health care fraud investigations and was responsible for leading the implementation of a variety of programs under the Affordable Care Act.

Sanjoy Dutta, Ph.D., is the chief scientific officer at JDRF where he oversees all of JDRF’s efforts to cure Type 1 diabetes, including beta cell therapies, immunotherapies, glucose control and complications. Before joining JDRF in 2009, Dutta was the associate director of translational medicine and clinical biomarkers at Bristol-Myers Squibb and principal scientist of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases at Hoffmann-La Roche.

Estelle Everett, M.D., is an endocrinologist and health services researcher at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Her research involves addressing the barriers to care among patients with diabetes, inequities in diabetes care and outcomes and the disparities in access to diabetes treatment for vulnerable populations with Type 1 diabetes. She completed medical degree at UCLA and then completed her Internal Medicine residency and Endocrinology fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.

Is Pitching Worth the Effort?
2022-03-17 01:00
Join AHCJ for this week’s Lunch and Learn get-together where you’ll learn how to determine how much effort to put into your pitches. Don’t miss out on this exciting opportunity to mix and mingle with fellow freelance journalists.
When/Where: 1:00 p.m. ET, March 17. (virtual)
View the webcastMeeting ID: 961 8036 2044

Transgender teens and gender-affirming care: What reporters need to know
2022-03-28 01:00
SAVE THE DATE: March 28, 1 p.m. ET
As multiple states introduce legislation related to the care of transgender children and teens, it’s becoming an even more important health care issue to cover, especially when so few people understand transgender health care or what gender-affirming care actually is.
View the webcast
Slides:Legislative overview (898 KB .pdf)Joshua Safer (791 KB .pdf)
Join us for a webinar with two experts, Dr. Jason Rafferty, a pediatrician and child psychiatrist who authored the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for gender-affirming care in children and adolescents, and Dr. Joshua Safer, a member of the Endocrine Society who serves as the Executive Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York.
Learn what gender-affirming care involves, how hormone therapy works, how many teens actually receive hormone therapy, the short-term and long-term risks and benefits of hormone treatment, how fertility preservation works, common pitfalls and errors in transgender health care reporting, and the various misconceptions that exist about gender-affirming care before adulthood.
You’ll also hear from an Endocrine Society representative who will review the confusing legislative landscape on this topic and leave with a list of websites, source recommendations, and other resources for reporting on this timely hot button issue.
Dallas Ducar
Jason Rafferty
Joshua Safer
Tara Haelle

Dallas Ducar is the founding CEO of Transhealth Northampton. Prior to assuming the CEO position, Dallas served as the Clinical Lead for Mental Health Services at the Massachusetts General Hospital Transgender Health Program, where she worked with an interdisciplinary team to provide novel gender-affirming care. Dallas worked to develop pathways for all patients to receive psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and surgical assessments for life-saving interventions. Dallas is on faculty at Columbia University, Northeastern University, University of Virginia School of Medicine, University of Virginia School of Nursing, and the MGH Institute for Health Professions. She serves on the Board of Directors for GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) and of Healing Our Community Collaborative (HOCC). She also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Primary Care Alliance and is on the LGBTQI Federal Policy Roundtable.

Dr. Jason Rafferty is a board certified child psychiatrist and pediatrician at Thundermist Health Centers, Hasbro Children’s Hospital, and Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital in Rhode Island. He is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and obtained post-graduate training through the Triple Board Residency at Brown University. The Triple Board is a combined program in pediatrics, general psychiatry and child/adolescent psychiatry. He has additional degrees from Harvard University in public health concentrating on maternal and child health, and education focused on adolescent development and psychology. He is involved with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), frequently reviewing policy and publications related to LGBTQ health. He was recently the lead author of the AAP’s policy statement, “Ensuring Comprehensive Care and Support for Transgender and Gender-Diverse Children and Adolescents.”

Joshua Safer is the executive director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery in New York City and professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Safer was the inaugural president of the United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH). Dr. Safer serves as medical curriculum lead for the Global Education Institute (GEI) of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and has been a scientific co-chair for WPATH international meetings. Dr. Safer is a co-author of the Endocrine Society guidelines for the medical care of transgender patients, the transgender hormone treatment sections for UpToDate, the current transgender medical care review in the New England Journal of Medicine and the current review of transgender medical care in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Dr. Safer graduated medical school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, completed residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, and completed fellowship in endocrinology at the Harvard-Longwood program based at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston.

Aging-in-place technology: challenges and trends
2022-04-06 01:00
SAVE THE DATE: April 6, 1 p.m. ET
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to aging in place. When the challenges older adults face are not adequately addressed, that person either lives with a lot of risk or is forced out of the place they’d prefer to live. Health technology is the answer for some. But there are challenges, including privacy issues, cost and useability. Our expert panel will lay out some of the issues that arise as families try to support a parent’s desire to age in place. We’ll also look at one demo project that could help and highlight some of the latest tech trends that health reporters should have on their radar.
View the webcast
Leslie Kernisan
Jeffrey Kaye
Laurie M. Orlov
Liz Seegert
Karen Blum

Leslie Kernisan, M.D., M.P.H., is a practicing geriatrician and the founder of the popular aging health website and podcast BetterHealthWhileAging.net, which she created to help families and older adults learn better ways to manage aging health challenges. She is also a clinical instructor in the UCSF Division of Geriatrics. Dr. Kernisan has a special interest in the practical problems families encounter while assisting aging parents, including how to help them age-in-place. She has been running “Helping Older Parents” online courses and group coaching programs since 2018, and is the author of the book, “When Your Aging Parent Needs Help: A geriatrician’s step-by-step guide to memory loss, resistance, safety worries and more.”

Jeffrey Kaye, M.D., is the Layton Professor of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering at Oregon Health and Science University. He directs the Oregon Center for Aging and Technology, the Oregon Roybal Center for Care Support Translational Research Advantaged by Integrating Technology, and the NIA-Layton Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at OHSU. He leads or has led several longitudinal studies on aging and clinical trials including: Intelligent Systems for Detection of Aging Changes, the ORCATECH Life Laboratory, Ambient Independence Measures for Guiding Care Transitions, and the Collaborative Aging Research using Technology Initiative studies, all using pervasive computing and sensing technologies for assessment and interventions. He is listed in Best Doctors in America. He serves on many national and international panels and boards in the fields of geriatrics, neurology and technology. He is an author of over 400 scientific publications and holds several major grant awards from federal agencies, national foundations and industrial sponsors.

Laurie M. Orlov, a tech industry veteran, writer, speaker and elder care advocate, is the founder of Aging and Health Technology Watch — market research, trends, blogs and reports that provide thought leadership, analysis and guidance about health and aging-related technologies and services that enable boomers and seniors to sustain and improve their quality of life. In her previous career, Laurie spent many years in the technology industry, including nine years at analyst firm Forrester Research. She has spoken regularly and delivered keynote speeches at forums, industry consortia, conferences, and symposia, most recently on the business of technology for boomers and seniors. She advises large organizations as well as non-profits and entrepreneurs about trends and opportunities in the age-related technology market. She has a graduate certification in geriatric care management from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s in music from the University of Rochester. Laurie has been named one of the Top 50 Influencers in Aging by Next Avenue and one of the women leading global innovation on age tech 2020.

Co-moderator Liz Seegert (@lseegert), is AHCJ’s topic leader on aging. Her work has appeared in NextAvenue.com, Journal of Active Aging, Cancer Today, Kaiser Health News and other outlets. She is a senior fellow at the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement at George Washington University and co-produces the HealthCetera podcast.

Co-moderator Karen Blum is AHCJ’s core topic leader on health IT. An independent journalist in the Baltimore area, she has written health IT stories for publications such as Pharmacy Practice News, Clinical Oncology News, Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, General Surgery News and Infectious Disease Special Edition.

Webinar: Is it possible to have healthy people on a sick planet?
2022-04-19 01:00
This webinar features, Gary Cohen, president of Health Care Without Harm and a pioneer in the environmental health movement for more than 35 years. Cohen has helped build coalitions addressing health impacts related to climate change and toxic chemical exposure. Health Care Without Harm, created in 1996, works to transform the health care sector to be environmentally sustainable.
Sponsor: The Hastings Center, an ethics research institute
Speaker: Gary Cohen, president, Health Care Without Harm
Date: April 19, 2022
Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
Location: virtual
Cost: free
Register: https://tinyurl.com/bdzcuzzv

Reporting and Sourcing
2022-05-19 01:00
Gathering the information you need to tell your story can mean finding sources to interview, searching the medical literature, and digging through archives, databases or social media. In our May 19 Lunch & Learn, we’ll dig into reporting and sourcing stories. Whether you’re reporting a fast-turnaround news story or a juicy feature, you’ll come away with plenty of helpful info
When/Where: 1:00 p.m. ET, May 19. (virtual)
View the webcastMeeting ID: 961 8036 2044

Hiding in Plain Sight: Documenting the crisis in kids’ mental health
2022-05-25 01:00
At 3 p.m. CST on May 25, AHCJ will offer a special webinar on an upcoming two-part film, produced by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, on the crisis in children’s mental health.
The PBS film, “Hiding in Plain Sight: Youth Mental Illness,” is an intimate examination of a crisis that the American Academy of Pediatrics called a public health emergency in 2021. The documentary is anchored by the anguished voices of 20 young people, ages 11 to 27, who live with mental health conditions, as well as parents, teachers, friends, health care providers in their lives, along with mental health experts with deep knowledge of youth mental health.
What makes the film required viewing for health care reporters is its unusually frank and direct discussion of mental health among young people, whose voices aren’t often heard in reporting on this topic. They talk about the stigma of mental illness, how they hid their challenges and how their own personal crises unfolded. The result is a film that should advance the public’s understanding and awareness of the crisis and what can be done to help young people.
Scheduled to air on PBS stations on June 27 and June 28, the films were directed by brothers Erik and Christopher Loren Ewers, longtime members of the Ken Burns team and award-winning filmmakers in their own right. They will join AHCJ core topic leader for mental and behavioral health Katti Gray for a webinar discussion about how they gained the trust and confidence of their film subjects. Two of the young people profiled in the film, Collin Cord and Makalynn Powell, will join the discussion. The webinar audience will also see a short, sneak preview of the film.
View the webcast
Erik Ewers
Christopher Loren Ewers
Collin Cord
Makalynn Powell
Katti Gray

About the filmmakers:
Erik EwersCo-Director and Editor
Erik Ewers has worked with documentary filmmaker Ken Burns for more than 30 years, including nearly all of his single and multi-episodic films. He serves as Ken’s senior editor and as co-director and editor of Ewers Brothers Productions, a preferred collaborative company in the co-creation of Ken’s films.
Erik has been nominated for more than seven personal and program Emmy Awards and has won one editing Emmy and three program Emmys, as well as two prestigious ACE Eddie Award nominations and one ACE win for “Best Edited Documentary of 2015.” Erik is an expert in all aspects of filmmaking, having served as music producer, writer, director, film producer, picture editor, and sound effects, music, and dialogue editor.
In 2015, Erik collaborated with Ken to create the two-hour PBS film The Mayo Clinic: Faith, Hope, Science, serving as producer, director and editor. Their partnership continues in an upcoming miniseries on America’s mental health crisis.
Christopher Loren EwersCo-Director and Director of Photography
Christopher Loren Ewers has been working behind the camera for over 20 years. He studied cinematography at Boston University and photojournalism at the New England School of Photography, and has traveled the world exploring the human experience through the lens. His eclectic work includes a variety of subjects, formats and collaborators, from national networks like NBC and PBS to Fortune 500 brands like Apple, Coca-Cola, and IBM and to nonprofit organizations like the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Clinton Global Initiative.
However, it’s the unique mix of Chris’s film and journalism backgrounds that puts documentary filmmaking at the center of his work. His cinematography has been featured in each of Ken’s films since The Vietnam War.
Working with Ken as executive producer, Chris co-directed and served as Director of Photography on feature length documentary, The Mayo Clinic: Faith, Hope, Science, broadcast nationally on PBS in September 2018. He and brother Erik are currently co-directing a series of films exploring the mental health crisis, scheduled to air on PBS over a ten-year period beginning in 2022.

Tick boom: A physician's forecast for summer '22
2022-06-08 01:00
Wednesday, June 8, noon ET
Ticks have proliferated – caused by the combination of overbuilding in previously forested areas, climate change and international trade.
We all know about the tick-borne disease – Lyme – which can cause debilitating nerve and other damage, but what are the new and emerging tick-borne diseases and where are they emerging? What does that mean for communities? What should reporters be writing about right now and what are the under covered stories related to tick-borne diseases? When will there be a vaccine for Lyme? What about the latest treatments and how can communities and individuals prevent getting bitten?
A long-time tick expert, physician and former co-chair of a national working group on tick borne diseases that advises the federal government will provide some answers. Please send your questions to bara@healthjournalism.org.
View the slides
John Aucott
Bara Vaida

Dr. John Aucott is an internist and Lyme disease expert in the Division of Rheumatology, and is the director of the Johns Hopkins Lyme Disease Clinical Research Center. With more than 15 years of research experience on the crippling effects of Lyme disease, he has published studies focusing on characteristics of early Lyme disease. His research is also focused on improved diagnostic testing and health related outcomes in Lyme disease. He is widely recognized an international expert in post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome. He is also former chair of the U.S. Health and Human Service’s department’s Tick-Borne Working Group that developed a set of recommended policies on preventing and responding to tick-borne diseases.

Reporting the facts on abortion
2022-06-22 01:00
June 22, noon ET
Women in many U.S. states are facing increased legal obstacles to abortion, a trend that has been accelerating in recent years with laws now requiring waiting periods and “counseling,” among other stipulations. A pending Supreme Court decision is expected to further limit access by banning the procedure outright in many states.
To help better inform your reporting, using science and evidence-based information, AHCJ will hold a webinar with Nisha Verma, M.D., a fellow with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). Patient safety core topic leader Kerry Dooley Young will host the webinar. This session will help journalists know what to ask when presented with research on abortion, particularly medical abortions. The webinar will also explore how political agendas have skewed research. Verma will also address the potential of telehealth in states where abortion is not restricted.
View the webcast
Nisha Verma
Kerry Dooley Young
Nisha Verma, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.O.G., was born in Greensboro, N.C., and received her bachelor’s in Biology and Anthropology and her medical degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She graduated from Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and completed her Complex Family Planning fellowship and Master’s in Public Health degree at Emory University.
She is currently serving as the Darney-Landy Fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists with their Strategies for Healthy Equity team and provides abortion care at Planned Parenthoods in the Delaware area. She is also Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University.
She is particularly passionate about improving access to reproductive health care in the southeast United States, her home region, and has expertise in effective messaging techniques on complicated topics such as abortion.

A Cochrane conversation on using systematic reviews
2022-06-29 01:00
June 29, 2 p.m. ET
In the era of big data, some think that all you need for a systematic review is enough data. Not true, say Cochrane experts, who apply a rigorous methodology to their systematic reviews to minimize bias and produce more reliable, higher quality research findings. Journalists who attend this webinar will learn:

The difference between a study, a review, meta-analyses, and systematic reviews

What’s so great about systematic reviews

How to read a systematic review and evaluate its quality

What to care about in the summary of findings table

How to report on a systematic review to help your readers make informed health decisions

Cochrane’s protocol for assessing health evidence and how it compares to others’.

View the webcast—Slides (892 KB .pdf)
Lisa Bero
Tara Haelle
Professor Lisa Bero is a researcher in evidence-based health care and is internationally known for her studies on the integrity of clinical and basic research evidence that is used to influence health policy. She is affiliate professor, University of Sydney, where she founded the multidisciplinary Evidence, Policy and Influence Collaborative at the Charles Perkins Centre, focusing on bias and its influence on the integrity of research. She is a professor of medicine and public health and chief scientist, Center for Bioethics and Humanities, University of Colorado. She has contributed to Cochrane as an author, editor, center director, and member and co-chair of Cochrane’s Governing Board, and is currently senior editor, research integrity. She is also a longtime contributor to the work of the World Health Organization, including serving as a member of the Guideline Review Committee, and as chair of the Essential Medicines Committee.

Understanding the pharmacy benefit manager 'shell game'
2022-09-14 01:00
Sept. 14, 1 p.m. ET
In this webcast, Ohio-based, award-winning journalist Darrel Rowland will explain the strategies pharmacy benefit managers use to boost profits by increasing what patients pay out of pocket for their medications and limiting the drugs that insurers will cover. He’ll also talk about how pharmacy benefit managers have driven smaller and locally owned pharmacies out of business.
These strategies and others led the Federal Trade Commission to begin an investigation this spring into the practices of the six largest PBMs — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, OptumRx, Humana Inc.; Prime Therapeutics, and MedImpact Healthcare Systems — and Rowland will help prepare journalists to report on the outcome of that investigation.

View the webcast

Links
A press release about a report from the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on insulin and the role of PBMs and other actors in the drug-supply chain:

https://www.finance.senate.gov/chairmans-news/grassley-wyden-release-insulin-investigation-uncovering-business-practices-between-drug-companies-and-pbms-that-keep-prices-high

The press release includes a link to all of the material the committee reviewed, including the full text of the committee’s investigative report and the committee’s records: HERE.
And here’s a link to the report itself:

https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Grassley-Wyden Insulin Report (FINAL 1).pdf

Here are links from the Federal Trade Commission on its PBM investigation into PBMs:

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/events/2022/06/future-pharmaceuticals-examining-analysis-pharmaceutical-mergers

FTC-DOJ Listening Forum – Health Care- April 14, 2022

The Future of Pharmaceuticals – June 14, 2022

The Future of Pharmaceuticals – June 15, 2022

Merger Guidelines Listening Forum- June 21, 2022

Other sources mentioned included:

Antonio Ciaccia at 3 Axis Advisors, a consulting firm, and at 46Brooklyn Research, drug-price researchers and on Twitter at @A_Ciaccia

Adam J. Fein, PhD, CEO of Drug Channels Institute.

And here’s a link to a report in 2019 from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission on what’s called the ‘black box’ in the relationship between health insurers and PBMs:

Cracking Open the Black Box of Pharmacy Benefit Managers

Darrel Rowland
Joseph Burns
Darrel Rowland is an independent journalist who has won multiple awards for his work over more than three decades at The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio as a reporter and editor. His work has focused on what he calls accountability stories about pharmacy benefit managers and on a wide variety of other topics. Stories he supervised led to the resignation of an Ohio attorney general, and he has reported on a scandal in which state officials admitted to improperly withholding $40 million in child-support payments to single parents.

Lunch and Learn: Finding ... and keeping ... accountability partners
2022-09-15 01:00
When/Where: 1:00 p.m. ET, Sept. 15 (virtual)
View the webcastMeeting ID: 943 4281 6993

Ask the expert: A White House Q&A on monkeypox
2022-09-22 01:00
Sept. 22, noon ET
Monkeypox is the latest infectious disease outbreak for health journalists to cover and explain to the public.
In early August, President Biden declared monkeypox a public health emergency and named Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, CDC director of HIV/AIDS prevention, as deputy coordinator of the administration’s effort to respond to the outbreak. Daskalakis will take questions for 30 minutes during this webcast, so bring your questions about transmission, risk, health equity and how not to perpetuate stigma in your coverage.
View the webcast
Demetre Daskalakis
Bara Vaida
Demetre Daskalakis is the deputy coordinator of the White House monkeypox response. He previously was director of the division of HIV/AIDS prevention at the CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. Daskalakis was integral in designing and leading many HIV and STD programs in New York City, including their Ending the Epidemic program, which is credited with decreasing HIV incidence to an historic low.

Nurse staffing and patient safety: What the research shows
2022-09-28 01:00
Sept. 28, 1 p.m. ET
Journalist Sarah DiGregorio, author of the forthcoming book, “Taking Care: The Revolutionary Story of Nursing,” and Kerry Dooley Young, AHCJ’s core topic leader on patient safety, will review the findings of major studies on how nurse staffing levels affect quality of care. This webinar will introduce journalists to major papers and reports on this issue and provide an update on efforts at the state and federal level to mandate nurse-patient ratios.
View the webcast
“She Had a Preemie — and Then She Started to Ask Important Questions” was the headline of the 2020 New York Times review of DiGregorio’s first book, “Early: An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What It Teaches Us.” DiGregorio, who has a master’s in journalism from New York University, has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Village Voice and in magazines including Saveur and Parade, specializing earlier in food writing. Her second book, a cultural history of nursing called “Taking Care: The Revolutionary Story of Nursing,” is forthcoming in May.

Navigating freelance contracts
2022-10-06 01:00
Noon CT/1 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 6
Freelance contracts can be short, simple easy-to-understand agreements, multi-page documents full of legalese or anything in between. They can contain clauses that will cost you money, take away your future rights to the story, delay payment and saddle you with legal responsibilities best avoided.
In this webinar, former journalist and media lawyer Charles Glasser will answer your questions about why contracts are important, language to include and avoid, and how to negotiate the contract you want. Feel free to bring a contract and ask a specific question that can serve as an example for all attendees.
View the webcast
Charles Glasser
Barbara Mantel
Charles Glasser spent 12 years as the global media counsel for Bloomberg News, where he trained more than 2,200 reporters on legal issues and journalism fundamentals. He is now a private legal consultant and teaches law and ethics for investigative journalism at New York University’s Arthur Carter Journalism Center.

Pushing back against ageism, one story at a time
2022-10-13 01:00
11 a.m. CT/noon ET Thursday, Oct. 13
Ageism is pervasive in our society. And journalists can be as guilty as anyone else of perpetuating ageist tropes. But despite the barrage of negative messages that come at us at home, at work, and even at the supermarket, aging isn’t something sad or depressing that old people do. It’s how we move through life from birth to death; everyone is doing it; and more of us are doing more of it than ever before.
Join author and activist Ashton Applewhite as we discuss ageism and how journalists can avoid ageist stereotypes in their reporting and depict aging in accurate and nuanced ways.
View the webcast

OldSchool.info — one-stop go-to for all things ageism-related, including resources, tools and language guides

Yo, is this Ageist — Ashton’s blog

This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism, by Ashton Applewhite

Breaking the Age Code How Your Beliefs About Aging Determine How Long and Well You Live, by Becca Levy, Ph.D.

Ashton Applewhite
Liz Seegert
An internationally recognized expert on ageism, Ashton Applewhite is the author of “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism” and a co-founder of the Old School Anti-Ageism Clearinghouse. She speaks widely at venues that have included the United Nations and the TED mainstage, has written for Harper’s, the Guardian, and the New York Times, and is at the forefront of the emerging movement to raise awareness of ageism and to dismantle it.

Ask the expert: A Q&A on femtech
2022-10-24 01:00
2 p.m. CT/ 3 p.m. ET, Monday, Oct. 24
In the continuing fallout of the Dobbs decision, questions have been raised about how far law enforcement might reach into private health information via femtech, health care software and tech-enabled products designed to support women’s health. Can “anonymous” modes recently introduced by some companies truly keep users’ information private? And how could the upcoming November elections — 36 states are holding governor contests — impact the industry with abortion a top-of-mind issue for many people?
Bethany Corbin, the femtech practice lead and senior counsel for Nixon Gwilt Law, will take questions for 30 minutes during the webcast, so bring your queries. Corbin is a frequent speaker and writer on femtech, privacy, contract drafting and ethical technology. She also hosts the Legally Femtech podcast.
View the webcast
Bethany Corbin
Karen Blum
Bethany Corbin, femtech practice lead and senior counsel at Nixon Gwilt Law, is a recognized industry expert at the intersection of law and women’s health technology. She empowers pioneering femtech and health care innovation companies to revolutionize care delivery with legal counsel and strategic guidance. In particular, Bethany partners with emerging femtech companies at the forefront of health care transformation to ensure they are building robust, scalable and legally compliant health solutions that are ready to lead the industry.

After “Hidden Valley Road:” A conversation with author Robert Kolker
2022-11-02 01:00
1 p.m. CT Wednesday, Nov. 2
When journalist Robert Kolker first learned about the Galvin family through a colleague’s introduction to one of the family members, he didn’t know whether their story had all the elements needed to become a book until he began the reporting. The narrative that unfolded—a family in which six of the 10 sons developed schizophrenia—provided a compelling framework for exploring the history of schizophrenia research from its discovery through the present day.
The result, the highly acclaimed “Hidden Valley Road,” has continued to have an impact even two years after its 2020 publication, particularly in addressing the stigma associated with schizophrenia. Kolker will discuss how the book came about, his realization that it could be a book, how he found and wove medical research into his narrative, and what the book’s current impact has been for both the Galvin family and the understanding of schizophrenia more broadly.
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Robert Kolker
Tara Haelle
Robert Kolker is the author of “Hidden Valley Road,” an instant #1 New York Times bestseller and selection of Oprah’s Book Club; and “Lost Girls,” also a New York Times bestseller and New York Times Notable Book. He is a National Magazine Award finalist whose journalism has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Wired, O, the Oprah Magazine, the Marshall Project, Bloomberg Businessweek, and New York magazine.

“Breathless:” A Q&A with science writer David Quammen
2022-12-14 01:00
Noon ET Wednesday, Dec. 14
Join us for a discussion with veteran science journalist David Quammen whose most recent book, “Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus,” details the story of how virologists and other scientists have worked to unravel the mysteries of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Quammen will also talk about what he learned about the various origin theories and what lessons can be applied to the next, likely pandemic.
The New York Times describes the book as a “luminous, passionate account of the defining crisis of our time — and the unprecedented international response to it.” Bring your questions about craft, grasping difficult science and spotting the next pandemic for this 45-minute Q&A.
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David Quammen
Bara Vaida
David Quammen is an author and journalist whose seventeen books include “The Song of the Dodo” (1996), “The Reluctant Mr. Darwin” (2006), and “The Tangled Tree” (2018). His 2012 book, “Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic,” described the dynamics of viral spillover from wildlife into humans and predicted a coming pandemic, possibly caused by a coronavirus.
His new book, “Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus,” describes the scientific effort to trace the origins and evolution of the Covid-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, and to combat the pandemic it caused.
Quammen’s magazine work has appeared in National Geographic, The New Yorker, Outside, Harper’s, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, and The New York Review of Books, among other magazines, and his Op-Eds in the New York Times and other newspapers. He’s a three-time recipient of the National Magazine Award and has received several awards for his books, including the Premio Letterario Merck, given in Rome. He shares a home in Bozeman, Montana, with his wife, Betsy Gaines Quammen, author of the book “American Zion,” plus three borzois, a cross-eyed cat, and a rescue python named Boots.

Long COVID: Ask NIH leader about latest research
2023-02-10 01:00
2 p.m. ET Friday, Feb. 10
Check out this discussion with NIH leader Dr. Gary Gibbons about long COVID, which is still poorly understood by scientists and physicians. Find out why some people have lingering, severe fatigue, brain fog, or trouble breathing, who is at risk for these symptoms and why a treatment is a mystery the National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER initiative and many other researchers are working to solve.
To help journalists write about this topic, Dr. Gibbons answered questions about what we know so far about long COVID and address questions that remain unanswered. He particularly focused on health inequities and long COVID’s impact on non-White and ethnic groups. Check out the webinar slides and watch the full webcast below.
Meeting ID: 966 7847 9850Passcode:[REDACTED]
Watch the webcast
Dr. Gary Gibbons
Bara Vaida
Dr. Gary Gibbons has been the director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute since 2012. Before joining the NHLBI, Dr. Gibbons — a cardiologist by training — was the founding director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, Department of Physiology chair and professor of physiology and medicine at the Morehouse School of Medicine.There he directed NIH-funded research in the fields of vascular biology, genomic medicine and the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. Gibbons received several patents for innovations derived from his research in the fields of vascular biology and the pathogenesis of vascular diseases. Prior to joining the Morehouse School of Medicine in 1999, Gibbons taught at Stanford University and Harvard Medical School.

“Under the skin”: A conversation about health and racism with Linda Villarosa
2023-03-29 01:00
1 p.m. ET Wednesday, March 29
Journalist and author Linda Villarosa will talk with AHCJ core topic leader for health equity Margarita Birnbaum about how a story she wrote for the New York Times evolved into a book — “Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and the Health of Our Nation.” Villarosa, a former health editor at The New York Times, wrote a gripping and revealing story that exposed how race and ethnic prejudice in the medical system and society at large have contributed to the deaths of generations of Black women and children.
Join us for a conversation with Villarosa to learn more about the people she interviewed, how to find people who will share their experiences, and how to bring context about the legacy of bigotry to the stories we write about local and national public health trends. Read more about the award-winning journalist on her website.
Meeting ID: 996 8142 9748 Passcode:[REDACTED]
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Linda Villarosa
Margarita Binbaum

Webinar: Advances in Brain Health
2023-04-26 01:00
Explore the latest advances in brain aging research in a free webinar hosted by the American Federation for Aging Research and Prevention magazine. Panelists include Emilie T. Reas, Ph.D., assistant professor in neurosciences at the University of California San Diego and Tara Tracy, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and adjunct assistant professor at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. When/Where: 3-4 p.m. EST, April 26, (virtual)
Contact: John Chaich, john@afar.org
To register, visit this webpage.

Harnessing the power of the Congressional District Health Dashboard
2023-04-28 01:00
1 p.m. ET Friday, April 28
Join Margarita Birnbaum, AHCJ’s core topic leader for health equity, and Samantha Breslin, program director at NYU, for a tour of the new Congressional District Health Dashboard. This free website gives journalists, policymakers and advocates a one-stop resource of unbiased, nonpartisan data at the congressional-district level to inform the development of policies that give everyone the opportunity for good health and well-being. Developed by the Department of Population Health at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Dashboard provides first-of-its-kind data on health and conditions that affect health, including diabetes rates, rent burden, lack of insurance, and broadband access, in every congressional district across the country.
You’ll learn how to use the data to report on health and social policy topics most relevant to your beat; how to view customized health snapshots and interactive maps; how to identify local, state, and regional trends; how to look at how districts compare to others on key measures; and how to go deeper on key findings across congressional districts.
Meeting ID: 914 3755 0710Passcode: [REDACTED]
View the recording
Samantha Breslin
Margarita Birnbaum

Webinar: Covering the lawsuit that could limit free preventive care
2023-05-10 01:00
12 p.m. ET Wednesday, May 10
One of the biggest health care stories of 2023 will break when the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas rules in the case of Braidwood Management v. Becerra. In this challenge to provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Christian-owned businesses and six individuals in Texas assert that the ACA’s requirements to cover preventive services without requiring patients to pay some of the costs of care is unconstitutional. If the court rules in the plaintiffs’ favor, Americans may need to pay more for preventive health care.
To learn more about the implications of the lawsuit, A. Mark Fendrick, M.D., one of the nation’s leading experts on how cost-sharing harms patients, joined AHCJ for a webcast on May 10. Fendrick explained how journalists can cover this story and how, if the plaintiffs succeed on either constitutional or religious grounds, it could limit or restrict the government’s ability to require health insurers and employers to cover evidence-based preventive services without cost-sharing.
Watch the Recording
A. Mark Fendrick, M.D.
Joseph Burns
A. Mark Fendrick, M.D., is the founder and director of the Value-Based Insurance Design Center at the University of Michigan. He is also a professor of internal medicine in the university’s School of Medicine and a professor of Health Management and Policy in the university’s School of Public Health. A practicing physician, Fendrick has seen how requiring consumers to pay for preventive health services causes patients to disregard physicians’ orders because they cannot afford to do so, leading to adverse effects on patients’ health. Since founding the VBID in 2005, Fendrick has advised Congress, employers, health plans and federal agencies on the need to eliminate patient cost-sharing.
Additional resources

No-Cost Preventive Services Are Now in Jeopardy. Here’s What You Need to Know, Julie Appleby, KFF Health News, April 7, 2023.
Judge’s Decision Would Make Some No-Cost Cancer Screenings a Thing of the Past, Julie Appleby and Michelle Andrews, KFF Health News, March 30, 2023
Explaining Litigation Challenging the ACA’s Preventive Services Requirements: Braidwood Management Inc. v. Becerra, KFF, April 4, 2023
Behind the push to strike down free preventative health care in America, WBUR On Point with A. Mark Fendrick MD and Nicholas Bagley, April 26, 2023
A Texas Judge Just Invalidated The Preventive Services Mandate. What Happens Next?, Health Affairs, March 30, 2023
Braidwood Management Inc., et al., plaintiffs, v. Xavier Becerra, et al., defendants, Civil Action No. 4:20-cv-00283-O, March 30, 2023.
USPSTF recommendation on breast-cancer screening, May 9, 2023
USPSTF recommendation on latent TB infection screening, May 2, 2023
What’s Wrong With Health Insurance? Deductibles Are Ridiculous, for Starters, Aaron E. Carrol, MD, NY Times, July 7, 2022.

Webinar: Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative Annual Leadership Summit 2023
2023-05-18 01:00
The Council of State Governments Justice Center will host the third annual summit of the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative on May 18 at 8 p.m. EST. In addition to honoring the Judge Stephen S. Goss Leadership Awardees, the webinar will include a panel discussion spotlighting efforts to decriminalize mental health and substance use disorders.
An estimated 43% of state prisoners and 44% of the mainly pre-trial detainees in local jails had a diagnosed mental illness, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Those analysts also concluded that 74% of state prisoners and 66% of federal prisoners with mental and behavioral health diagnoses said they received no mental health care while incarcerated.
When/Where: May 18, 8 p.m. EST (virtual)
Contact: press@csgjusticecenter.org or (212) 482-2320
Click here to register.

Webinar: What journalists should know about avian flu and pandemic preparedness
2023-05-18 01:00
2 p.m. ET Thursday, May 18
The global COVID-19 public health emergency was declared over by the World Health Organization, but public health officials need to remain vigilant for the next one. Could it be avian flu or a different pathogen that jumps from animals to people? At the end of May, the federal government is launching the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility to monitor and respond to biological threats involving human, zoonotic and foreign animal diseases.
Ambika Bumb, deputy executive director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense, will talk about what reporters need to know about zoonotic threats, the biodefense of animal agriculture, and the reasons to keep writing about pandemic preparedness, particularly given legislation pending in Congress this year. She will also speak to what kind of government plan is required to reduce the risk of another global pandemic in the near future.
View Ambika Bumb’s presentation
Meeting ID: 993 6565 0877Passcode: [REDACTED]
Watch the recording
Ambika Bumb, Ph.D.
Bara Vaida
Ambika Bumb, Ph.D., is deputy executive director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense. Before working with the commission, she served as deputy executive director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and was the Health, Science, and Technology Advisor for Department of State’s Crisis Management and Strategy within the Office of the Secretary. She was also an advisor for HelpWithCOVID, a grassroots clearing house that matched community volunteers with projects focused on providing COVID relief. She graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and a minor in economics and received her doctorate in medical engineering from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-Oxford Program.

Webinar: Why our food supply still isn't safe from contamination
2023-06-14 01:00
Recorded at 12 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 14
Health hazards from tainted meat, produce and other foods are an ongoing national problem, underscored by last year’s unprecedented infant formula recall. Bill Marler, food safety lawyer and publisher of Food Safety News, will look at why it’s so hard to keep the food supply safe, what the federal government should be doing about it and story ideas for national and local reporters — just in time for summer — that will keep the focus on ensuring the safety of the food we eat.
View Bill Marler’s presentation
Watch the recording
Bill Marler
Bara Vaida
Bill Marler is the founder of Marler Clark, a law firm based in Seattle that specializes in representing victims of food-borne illness outbreaks. Marler has represented clients in some of the most high-profile food-borne illness cases in the United States, including the 1993 Jack in the Box E. coli outbreak, the 2006 Dole spinach E. coli outbreak, the 2011 Listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupes from Jensen Farms and the 2018 romaine E. coli outbreak. He founded Food Safety News in 2009 to keep the spotlight on food, health and safety reporting, as traditional news organizations were reducing and eliminating food safety coverage. Bill’s work has been profiled in the book “Poisoned” and in the Netflix documentary of the same name.

Webinar: How journalists can put ChatGPT to good use
2023-07-14 01:00
1 p.m. ET Friday, July 14
The artificial intelligence program ChatGPT has made headlines for its ability to create prose (and headlines), but how does it work? How are journalists using it? And what are the potential problems and ethical pitfalls?
In this webinar, Alex Mahadevan, director of the Poynter Institute’s MediaWise digital media literacy program, will take ChatGPT for a spin, discuss what he’s learned about the new technology and answer your questions.
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Alex Mahadevan
Karen Blum
Alex Mahadevan is the director of MediaWise at the Poynter Institute. Since 2019, he’s taught digital media literacy to thousands of teenagers and older adults, and trained journalists across the world in verification and digital tools for investigations. He also co-leads the Empowering Digital Diverse Digital Citizens Lab at Stanford University. Before getting into fact-checking and media literacy, Alex launched content management systems, newsletters and video series as a news innovation editor and data reporter in Florida.

Webinar: Cancer news: Balancing fear, hype and reality
2023-07-19 01:00
2 p.m. ET Wednesday, July 19
The most recent screening guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are controversial and confusing. Journalists must report responsibly on the latest health recommendations while talking about cancer — a subject that is often emotionally charged — using the latest scientific evidence.
At this webinar, experts will suggest approaches to putting the latest screening recommendations in context while eliminating hype and not creating false hope.
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Mehra Golshan, M.D.
Elaine Schattner, M.D.
Liz Seegert
Tara Haelle
Mehra Golshan, M.D., is a cancer surgeon and a nationally and internationally recognized leader in breast cancer treatment and research. He serves as deputy chief medical officer for surgical services and as clinical director of the Center for Breast Cancer at Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center. He has led numerous Phase I, II and III clinical trials and translational science innovations that have had an impact on treatment options and outcomes for women. Dr. Golshan is also a leading researcher in this field, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications.
Elaine Schattner, M.D., is a writer, breast cancer survivor, and physician. A graduate of Yale College and New York University School of Medicine, she is a clinical associate professor at Weill Cornell Medicine in the division of hematology and medical oncology. She worked as an oncologist for 16 years before completing a master’s degree in journalism at Columbia University. Her articles have appeared in the New York Observer, Huffington Post, Pacific Standard, Washington Post, NPR, and elsewhere. Her new book, “From Whispers to Shouts: The Ways We Talk About Cancer” is published by Columbia University Press.
