Breaking into ghostwriting and collaborating on books
2024-03-13 13:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York)
Ghostwriting and collaborating on books are a lucrative income stream — and you don’t have to sacrifice your journalistic principles to do it. The market for these books has mushroomed because publishers are now looking for experts with giant platforms.

Collaborations in their various forms can be a financial and professional lifeline; busy ghostwriters and collaborators can make upwards of $100,000 a year. In this webinar, two writers and a literary agent will discuss this growing market, how to get that first assignment as a ghostwriter or collaborator, what to watch out for in contracts and how to effectively work with an expert.

Barbara Mantel is AHCJ’s health beat leader for freelancing and has written about subjects such as how to find and keep an accountability partner, how to tap the rich resources at libraries and how to break into narrative journalism. Mantel, an award-winning journalist, began her journalism career as the economics reporter and then assistant managing editor of a business news program on ESPN television. She moved to NPR as its economics and business correspondent and later served as the first senior editor, senior producer and director of the public radio program “Science Friday.” Mantel’s byline has appeared in a wide range of media outlets, including CQ Researcher, AARP, Undark, Next Avenue, Medical Economics, Healthline, NBCNews.com, Today.com, NPR and The New York Times.

Susan K. Golant is a book collaborator, co-author, book doctor, ghostwriter, editor and/or writing coach. Golant has been writing nonfiction books alone and with others since 1982 and has more than 40 books to her credit. Her specialities include psychology, health and medical breakthroughs, spirituality and parenting, among others. She has collaborated with or ghostwritten for M.D.s, Ph.D.s and Rosalynn Carter.

Madeleine Morel is the head of 2M Communications, an agency that represents more than 100 ghostwriters and collaborators, matching them with experts, celebrities and public figures who need help getting their ideas into print. Morel has provided writers for more than 60 New York Times bestsellers. Each writer specializes in an area such as health, parenting, memoir/autobiography, science, sports and more.

Reimagining menopause: How reporters can reduce the stigma
2024-03-20 14:00 - 15:00
Half of the world’s population will experience menopause, yet this time in life is fraught with mystery, misconceptions, and a lack of solid information. Although menopause treatment and knowledge can affect healthy aging, primary care physicians and even many OB/GYNs don’t get the training or support they need to counsel patients and help them navigate what can be a challenging phase of life.

Join Liz Seegert, AHCJ’s Health Beat Leader for Aging, a certified menopause specialist, and a journalist who reports frequently on this topic for some myth-busting and guidance on how to report on menopause with sensitivity. You’ll learn about the most useful research on this subject and where the gaps still exist.

Liz Seegert is AHCJ’s health beat leader on aging. She’s an award-winning, independent health journalist based in New York’s Hudson Valley, who writes about caregiving, dementia, access to care, nursing homes and policy. Seegert is also a contributing writer for Fortune.com, the American Journal of Nursing, and PBS/NextAvenue.org, reporting on myriad health topics, including social determinants of health and women’s health. She has written for TIME Health, The Wirecutter, Money.com, Medscape, Consumer Reports, The Guardian and Medical Economics, as well as dozens of other trade and mainstream media. Her articles have been syndicated in Forbes.com, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant, The Saturday Evening Post and other major outlets.

Rebecca Levy-Gantt, M.D., is a board-certified ObGyn and a certified menopause practitioner. Levy-Gantt has been practicing for the last 15 years in Napa, California, and practiced before that for 11 years on Long Island. She focuses on menopause management, including hormones and alternative management strategies, as well as vaginal and vulvar pain syndromes. She also teaches at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, and writes frequently on menopause issues.

Meryl Davids Landau is a longtime independent journalist specializing in health. Her work on menopause has appeared in National Geographic, Good Housekeeping, Prevention, Everyday Health and other publications. She’s also the author of the award-winning mindfulness women’s novel, Warrior Won.

Lunch and Learn: Freelancer Free-for-all
2024-03-21 13:00 - 14:00
At AHCJ’s Lunch and Learns, freelancer members chat about a designated topic over Zoom every third Thursday of the month at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The Zoom link is always the same. This time, the topic is open, so come prepared to ask your fellow freelancers for help with anything from coping with a mean editor to buying the right stand-up desk.

Follow the Money: Using HospitalFinances.org and other tools to tell important stories
2024-03-27 13:00 - 14:00
This webinar is the first in a four-part series produced by AHCJ and Investigative Reporters and Editors that will equip you with the tools you need to tell the story of the big business of health care. Longtime AHCJ member Karl Stark, Director of Content Strategy & Editor in Residence at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, will show you how to use AHCJ’s hospitalfinances.org site and other tools to report stories about hospitals’ financial health.

The series is free for all journalists, thanks to the generous support of the NIHCM Foundation.

Karl Stark is the Director of Content Strategy & Editor in Residence at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, where he focuses on encouraging LDI Fellows to write for the public. Before joining LDI, he worked for more than three decades at the Philadelphia Inquirer, where he served as Health Editor, Business News Editor and National/Foreign Editor, among other positions. His reporting on the bankrupt Allegheny health system helped lead to indictments of the top three executives. He also served as President of the Association of Health Care Journalists, the nation’s leading group of health reporters and editors. He is a co-author of AHCJ’s “Covering the Quality of Health Care – A Resource Guide for Journalists” and leads a session on covering hospital finances at AHCJ’s annual meeting. He is a graduate of Yale University where he played varsity tennis. He also has distant memories of skating competitively with his sister Julie.

AHCJ NYC Chapter Event: Enough! A Conversation About Cervical Cancer
2024-04-02 17:30 - 18:30 | 1204 Broadway, New York, NY 10001, USA
Cervical cancer is preventable: Doctors know what causes it, how to treat and cure it if it’s caught early enough, and how to prevent it. And yet, the disease kills 360 women every day.

Dr. Linda Eckert, an OB-GYN and leading expert in cervical cancer prevention who recently published a book by that name. The book weaves together evidence-based information with women’s narratives, and exposes the barriers — cultural, gender-related, and political — that keep this deadly disease alive.

Join Dr. Eckert in conversation with Anna Medaris, a health and lifestyle journalist, and Eve McDavid, a cervical cancer survivor and advocate, as they discuss what YOU need to know about cervical cancer, and how we can all work toward meaningful change that saves lives.

1204 Broadway, New York, NY 10001, USA

https://luminary-legacy.us.hivebrite.com/events/79593

Lunch and Learn: How to be a freelance nomad
2024-04-18 13:00 - 14:00
At AHCJ’s Lunch and Learns, freelancer members chat about a designated topic over Zoom every third Thursday of the month at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The Zoom link is always the same.

Lunch and Learn: Finding the Right Story Mix
2024-05-16 13:00 - 14:00

Follow the Money: Uncovering insurers’ confidential clauses that hit patients in the pocketbook
2024-05-21 13:00 - 14:00
New York Times investigative reporter Chris Hamby and STAT reporter Bob Herman, who covers the business of health care, will be featured in a May 21 webinar on how journalists can report on the hidden and lucrative alliances health insurers have with cost-containment companies, pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and employee benefits consultants. The webinar is the second in a collaboration between The Association of Health Care Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and is being offered as part of the organizations’ “Follow the Money” series, with financial support from NIHCM.

In April, Hamby reported that MultiPlan, a company in New York City that helps health insurers keep costs down, and its health insurer clients have a large and mostly hidden financial incentive to cut payments for policyholders’ claims as much as possible. The result can be patients paying more than they would otherwise.

After doing a year-long investigation, Herman reported last year on a largely hidden ﬂow of money among employee benefit consulting companies, PBMs and health insurers. Those funds went from PBMs and health insurers to the benefit consulting companies, driving up health care and prescription drug spending for employers, workers and their families, Herman wrote.

During this webinar, hosted by AHCJ health policy beat leader Joe Burns, Hamby and Herman will discuss the tools and outline the tips and strategies they used to uncover these hidden agreements and how all health care journalists can report on this important story.

Joseph Burns is AHCJ’s health beat leader on health policy and insurance. He’s an independent journalist based in Brewster, Mass., who has covered health care, health policy and the business of care since 1991. Burns has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Fortune, Hospitals & Health Networks, and Medical Economics, among others.

Chris Hamby is an investigative reporter at The New York Times. While working at the Center For Public Integrity, Hamby won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for his series of stories on coal miners and was later awarded the Lukas Prize to develop his reporting into a book. He was also a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his work on multinational corporations and their violations of domestic regulations and environmental law. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Bob Herman is a business of health care reporter at STAT. He covers hospitals, health insurance, and other corners of the industry — with a goal of explaining and shining light on the massive amount of money flowing through the system. Prior to joining STAT in 2022, he covered the health care industry at Axios for more than five years. He also previously was an editor and reporter covering health insurance and hospitals at Modern Healthcare. Bob and his family are based in Indiana, so naturally he has a deep love for all things basketball.

Health Journalism 2024
2024-06-06 00:00 - 2024-06-09 23:59
The Association of Health Care Journalists will hold its annual Health Journalism Conference from June 6-9, 2024, bringing together hundreds of journalists across the U.S. in midtown New York City.

How to amp up your reporting using LexisNexis tools
2024-07-16 13:30 - 14:30
Top-tier research doesn’t begin and end with a quick check on Google. The best in our business comb the LexisNexis news archives for information and tap its massive database to find potential sources and reach them by phone or email.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how award-winning journalists conduct deep-dive backgrounding on people and subjects, how they get names and numbers from LexisNexis’ list of 800 million profiles, and how they use paywalled content and trade journal expertise to generate story ideas and fresh angles.

Many public libraries offer a limited version of LexisNexis, and some news publications make it available to writers. Fortunately, AHCJ members get discounted access to this robust tool.

However, you don’t have to be a LexisNexis subscriber to attend or benefit from this webinar. Our expert panelist will share his screen and walk you through this trove of source material. If you are a LexisNexis subscriber, you can follow along on your own computer.

Barbara Mantel is AHCJ’s health beat leader for freelancing and has written about subjects such as how to find and keep an accountability partner, how to tap the rich resources at libraries and how to break into narrative journalism. Mantel, an award-winning journalist, began her journalism career as the economics reporter and then assistant managing editor of a business news program on ESPN television. She moved to NPR as its economics and business correspondent and later served as the first senior editor, senior producer and director of the public radio program “Science Friday.” Mantel’s byline has appeared in a wide range of media outlets, including CQ Researcher, AARP, Undark, Next Avenue, Medical Economics, Healthline, NBCNews.com, Today.com, NPR and The New York Times.

Brad Hamilton runs an award-winning digital newsroom, The Hatch Institute, which commissions long-form enterprise pieces and publishes them with big media partners. The institute also mentors and supports other journalists.Hamilton has been a reporter and editor, primarily in investigative work, for 40 years, during which he created and led the New York Post’s first investigations unit and broke numerous front-page exclusives. His work has appeared in The New York Times, ABC News, the Los Angeles Times, Harper’s, the Guardian, Playboy, the Village Voice and other outlets.

In addition, he heads the Institute for Storycraft and Information Gathering, a nonprofit foundation that provides writing and reporting guidance for campus journalists and other college students.

Tracking medical debt, a major cause of personal bankruptcy
2024-07-31 13:00 - 14:00
Medical debt is a significant issue for well over half of Americans, according to the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. It may be the leading cause of personal bankruptcy. In this workshop, we’ll discuss sources, strategies, and best practices for reporting on medical debt.

This webinar is part of a series produced by AHCJ and Investigative Reporters & Editors that will equip you with the tools you need to tell the story of the big business of health care. The series is free for all journalists, thanks to the generous support of the NIHCM Foundation.

Speakers

Anissa Durham is the health data reporter at Word In Black, where she reports on health care inequities and mental health in the Black community. Prior to working at Word In Black, she was a general assignment reporter at inewsource and has written for The San Diego Union Tribune, PBS SoCal, The Objective, and Voice of San Diego. Anissa has a bachelor’s degree from National University. In 2024, she produced Life or Debt, a 3-part drug price series which explores the ways Black American’s living with chronic disease are forced to manage an expensive health care system. And in 2023, she produced the reporting series Lost Innocence: The Adultification of Black Children as a fellow with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism and Fact or Fiction: Navigating Health Misinformation.

Noam N. Levey is a Washington, D.C.,-based senior correspondent for KFF Health News, where he is currently producing “Diagnosis: Debt,” a multi-part project on medical debt in the U.S. in collaboration with NPR and CBS News. Noam joined KFF Health News in 2021 after 17 years at the Los Angeles Times, the last 12 as the paper’s national healthcare reporter based in Washington. He has reported on healthcare issues from more than three dozen states and four continents and won numerous honors, including a Loeb award and two NIHCM awards, one in 2020 for his series “Inside America’s High-Deductible Revolution” and one in 2023 for “Diagnosis: Debt.” Noam has also been published in Health Affairs, JAMA and Milbank Quarterly. He started his career at newspapers in Duluth, Minn., Montgomery, Ala., and the United Arab Emirates. Prior to the LA Times, Noam was an investigative reporter for the San Jose Mercury News. Noam has a degree in History and Near Eastern Studies from Princeton University.

2024 Rural Health Journalism Workshop
2024-08-22 10:00 - 18:00
Join us for a daylong virtual workshop of talks, presentations and conversation about some of the biggest challenges in rural health. We’ll unpack the nuances of the rural hospital closures crisis; innovative solutions to health care workforce shortages; the national picture of reproductive health care access; what happened to all that opioid settlement money; and a candid conversation about what people still get wrong about rural America (and why it matters).

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How rising health care prices are harming employers and families
2024-08-27 13:00 - 14:00
Over the past 10 years, workers’ wages have risen 54% while health care prices have gone up 230% in the U.S. That huge discrepancy means that what consumers spent on health care 10 years ago represented 17% of total compensation compared to 37% now.

Join AHCJ Health Beat Leader for Health Policy and Insurance Joe Burns as he talks to Cora Opsahl, director of the health fund for the Building Service 32BJ labor union in New York City; and Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, president and CEO of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, about the rising spiral of health care spending and the impact it’s having on employers and families.

Both have led fights on behalf of employers over hospital prices. Both see their efforts as part of a growing trend of employers fighting back against rising health care spending, which leaves businesses with less money for raises and families less money in the bank.

Learn how to find federal health spending data and real life stories that will help bring this issue alive for your readers.

Joseph Burns is AHCJ’s health beat leader on health policy and insurance. He’s an independent journalist based in Brewster, Mass., who has covered health care, health policy and the business of care since 1991. Burns has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Fortune, Hospitals & Health Networks, and Medical Economics, among others. Early in his journalism career, Burns worked as a reporter in Connecticut, first for The Wallingford Post (a weekly), and then The Meriden Record-Journal (a daily), and later for The Hartford Courant (the largest daily newspaper in the state and the nation’s oldest newspaper). For The Courant, he was a reporter, copy editor and regional news editor. During this time, he also taught news writing at the University of Connecticut.

Cora Opsahl is director of the 32BJ Health Fund, a self-funded plan that provides affordable, comprehensive and innovative health coverage to 200,000 union members and their families. Opsahl has led the implementation of multiple benefit changes: removing the New York-Presbyterian hospital system and physicians from the network; transitioning to a new pharmacy vendor and pharmacy group purchasing coalition; and implementing an expanded Centers of Excellence program administered by Mount Sinai Health System. These efforts saved over $35 million in 2022. Prior to joining the 32BJ Health Fund, Opsahl spent 12 years with Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager, where she held a variety of roles, including in Medicare Part D, strategy and acquisitions, operations, and account management. She holds an MBA from Saint Louis University.

Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, is the president and CEO of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, a nonprofit employer-led multi-stakeholder health care coalition. Founded in 2001, the forum aims to align payment with the value of services provided to employers and patients by focusing on hospital prices and quality, value-based health benefit and payment and on health policy. Sachdev also is an adjunct associate professor at Purdue College of Pharmacy. She received her Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from the University of Oklahoma and completed a primary residency at the VA in Madison, Wisc. Also, she has practiced in primary care physicians’ offices managing patients with chronic diseases and founded a consulting company aimed at integrating clinical pharmacists into team-based health care settings.

AHCJ Fellowship Informational Session
2024-09-13 14:00 - 15:00
Interested in applying for the U.S. Health System Reporting Fellowship, the International Health Study Fellowship or both? Join the Association of Health Care Journalists and program alumni to learn about these opportunities to advance the craft of health journalism and encourage nuanced, informed reporting that can drive meaningful change in health care systems worldwide.

Lunch and Learn: How to get fair pay and tailor work to pay
2024-09-19 13:00 - 14:00

Hospital mergers and health care price increases: A primer for reporters
2024-09-24 13:00 - 14:00
Hospital mergers — market consolidation — can lead to health care price increases of anywhere from 3% to 65%, according to a 2022 RAND Corporation review. The FTC’s director of the Bureau of Economics has said hospitals that merge may charge 40% to 50% more than if they hadn’t merged.

Mergers can also result in layoffs and lower tax revenues and have a negative impact on patient care by reducing access to some health care services. With so much research confirming negative effects and as health care prices continue to rise, what — if anything — can be done to slow market consolidation and/or reduce the harms to patients and local economies?

Join New York Times reporter Reed Abelson; health care cost economist Zachary K. Goldman, Oregon Health Authority; and executive editor of The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition Katie Gudiksen, University of California San Francisco, as they explore those questions and talk about what some states, like Oregon, have done to try to control cost growth.

This series builds on a recent webinar series produced by AHCJ and Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) on the business of health care called “Follow the Money.” Once journalists are trained on how to “follow the money” of health care, the Peterson-Milbank-supported webinar series will dive into cost drivers and look at solutions. Journalists will learn about ways that states, employers and other stakeholders can promote affordable health care and will be able to tell these stories in the context of their state and local communities.

Moderator

Reed Abelson

Reporter, New York TimesReed Abelson is fascinated by the changing landscape of American medicine as more doctors and nurses work for hospitals and corporations, and large health conglomerates account for a greater share of the care we get. Abelson also covers the business of health insurance and how it has changed since the debut of the Affordable Care Act and the increasing privatization of government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. Abelson aims to be endlessly curious about how the health care system works — and doesn’t — in the United States.

Zachary Goldman

Health care cost economist, Oregon Health AuthorityZachary Goldman is the health care cost economist at the Oregon Health Authority, where he has worked for 8 years. He currently focuses on Oregon’s Health Care Market Oversight Program and the Sustainable Health Care Cost Growth Target Program. Prior to joining the Oregon Health Authority, he was a senior policy specialist at Covered California, the state-based health insurance marketplace. He also worked for a federally qualified health center as a project manager and later as the clinic administrator. Zachary earned his Bachelor of Arts degrees from Brandeis University and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Katie Gudiksen, Ph.D.

Executive editor, The Source on Healthcare Price and CompetitionKatie Gudiksen, Ph.D., is the executive editor for The Source on Healthcare Price and Competition. Dr. Gudiksen is an expert in health care reform and the drivers of health care costs, with a special interest in market consolidation and state policies to address market power. She has helped draft model legislation to improve state merger review processes and to prohibit anticompetitive terms in contracts between insurers and health systems.

Her current work focuses on evaluating the options states have to restrict excessive provider prices, including cost-growth benchmarks and state public options. Her work has been published in Health Affairs, Frontiers in Health Services, the Harvard Journal on Legislation, and the New England Journal of Medicine, and covered by media outlet such as the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.

She has successfully worked with various state policymakers and stakeholders by commenting on bill language, presenting to various state agencies and officials, testifying as expert witness at state legislative hearings, and participating in briefings and informational sessions in California, Nevada, Connecticut and Oregon.

Biased devices: Reporting on racial bias in health algorithms and products
2024-10-16 15:00 - 16:00
Doctors measure health in many ways, from routine blood tests for cholesterol or kidney function to using devices like spirometers to test lung function or pulse oximeters for blood oxygen levels. But the results of these routine tests can be misleading because some tests and devices are skewed by algorithms that produce different results depending on a person’s race or ethnicity. Some devices don’t work as well for people with darker skin tones.

These biases can lead to delayed diagnoses and care for Black, Hispanic, Asian, and other communities of color. Now, clinicians, regulators and researchers are working to address inequities caused by the misuse of race.

This webinar will cover the fast-moving, complex space of racial disparities in algorithms and devices. Join Doris Duke Racial Equity in Clinical Equations Civic Science Fellow Jyoti Madhusoodanan and AHCJ Health IT Beat Leader Karen Blum to learn how these algorithms and devices work, how bias creeps in, the toll it takes, and efforts to solve this problem.

Panelists for this discussion are University of Michigan pulmonologist Michael Sjoding, who presented evidence to an FDA advisory committee on how racial bias in pulse oximeters endangers Black patients; and University of Pennsylvania gastroenterologist Shazia Siddique, who recently led an AHRQ-funded systematic review on clinical algorithms and racial disparities.

Moderator

Karen Blum

AHCJ Health IT Beat LeaderKaren Blum is AHCJ’s health beat leader for health IT. She’s an independent health and science journalist, based in the Baltimore area. She has written for publications such as the Baltimore Sun, Pharmacy Practice News, Clinical Oncology News, Clinical Laboratory News, Cancer Today, CURE, AARP.org, General Surgery News and Infectious Disease Special Edition; covered numerous medical conferences for trade magazines and news services; and written many profiles and articles on medical and science research as well as trends in health care and health IT. She is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and chairs its Virtual Education Committee; and a member of the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) and its freelance committee.

Moderator

Jyoti Madhusoodanan

Doris Duke Racial Equity in Clinical Equations Civic Science FellowJyoti Madhusoodanan is AHCJ’s Civic Science Fellow, covering race in health algorithms as part of a year-long fellowship funded by the Doris Duke Foundation. She is an independent science and health journalist who regularly covers biomedical research, health equity, clinical trials, and the translation of basic research into clinical care. Her reporting on race adjustments in clinical algorithms was supported by a 2020 project fellowship from the MIT Knight Science Journalism program; reporting on other topics has received fellowship support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, the GSA Journalists in Aging program, and others. Madhusoodanan is a senior contributor to Undark magazine and her work regularly appears in Nature, Scientific American, and other outlets. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Science Writers.

Shazia Siddique M.D., M.S.H.P.

Gastroenterologist & health policy researcher, University of PennsylvaniaDr. Shazia Siddique M.D., M.S.H.P., is assistant professor of medicine, division of gastroenterology; associate director for research, Center for Evidence-Based Practice; director of research, Center for Healthcare Improvement and Patient Safety (CHIPS); senior fellow, Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania.

Siddique is a physician-scientist with expertise in health services research and health equity. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology, Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics, and Senior Scholar for the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Sjoding, M.D., M.Sc.

Associate professor of medicine, University of Michigan Division of Pulmonary and Critical CareDr. Sjoding received his medical degree from Loyola University in Chicago. At the University of Michigan, he completed a Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship and received a master’s degree in health care research. His research focuses on developing novel digital tools to improve hospital care for patients with acute respiratory diseases.

Lunch and Learn: Building a niche beat as a freelance health journalist
2024-10-17 13:00 - 14:00

Reporting the respiratory triple threat: Preparing for flu, COVID and RSV season
2024-10-17 14:30 - 15:30
The winter respiratory illness season now includes three major pathogens that people need to prepare for by getting available vaccines and following the usual hygiene protocols to reduce risk of infection and transmission: influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Join Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and Health Beat Leader for infectious diseases Tara Haelle to hear about the CDC’s tools and resources for covering the upcoming flu/COVID-19/RSV season. Join us for this opportunity to get the answers you need to prepare your coverage.

This webinar is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Moderator

Tara Haelle

AHCJ Infectious Diseases Health Beat LeaderTara Haelle is AHCJ’s health beat leader for infectious diseases and medical studies. She’s an independent science/health journalist, author, speaker, and photographer. Her work has appeared in the National Geographic, Scientific American, Texas Monthly, Science News, Medscape/WebMD, The New York Times, Wired, and O Magazine, among others.

She specializes in public health and medical research, particularly vaccines, infectious disease, maternal and pediatric health, mental health, healthcare disparities, and misinformation. She also covers medical research conferences and edits Long COVID Connection on Medium. Haelle earned a master’s in photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and her images have appeared in Texas Monthly, NPR, the, Chicago Sun-Times and elsewhere.

Demetre Daskalakis, M.D., MPH

Director, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory DiseasesDemetre Daskalakis, M.D., MPH, is the Director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD). Most recently, he served as the Director of the Division of HIV Prevention in CDC’s National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. Dr. Daskalakis has been recognized nationally and internationally as an expert in HIV prevention and has focused much of his career on the treatment and prevention of HIV and other STIs as an activist physician with a focus on LGBTQIA+ communities. He also served as the Deputy Coordinator of the White House’s Mpox Response, where he led vaccination and public education efforts that helped to halt advancement of the virus.

Dr. Daskalakis began his career as an attending physician at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and later served in several public health capacities there, including the Deputy Commissioner for the Division of Disease Control at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. He also served as the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene incident commander during the measles outbreak of 2018-2019 and the 2020 COVID-19 public health emergency. Dr. Daskalakis received his Doctor of Medicine from the New York University School of Medicine and received a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Where policy and people meet: An AHCJ summit on mental and behavioral health
2024-10-24 08:30 - 2024-10-25 17:00 | The Pew Charitable Trusts, 901 E St NW #10, Washington, District of Columbia, United States
What happens when good intentions meet the reality of the challenging, real world of mental and behavioral health access? Join us for this 1.5-day AHCJ summit in Washington, D.C., where we will explore that question and provide a closer look at the experiences of people striving to provide support and those who need it.

We’ll talk about:

Substance use prevention strategies that actually work in schools.

How a 988 technology tweak could make a big difference to people in crisis.

The role physicians could play in suicide prevention with their patients who have access to firearms.

How to report on unhealthy alcohol use in a country where drinking is the norm.

What people on the front lines are doing to improve cultural competence and fill gaps in the continuum of care.

We are offering lunch on Thursday and continental breakfast on Thursday and Friday.

Program details coming soon.

Registration is limited to the first 100 participants.

Hotel

There will be a small block of rooms available near the event at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco for those who are traveling. The rate of $369 includes a $30 fee that will be waived for a net total of $339. The last day to book your hotel at the group price is Sept. 30.

Book your hotel

Venue

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Lunch and Learn: Do you need an accountability partner?
2024-11-21 13:00 - 14:00
Accountability partners give each other feedback and encouragement on freelance goals and hold each other accountable for taking the next steps. During this discussion, we’ll share our freelance challenges, such as battling procrastination, re-pitching when a pitch is rejected, shifting to different outlets and increasing productivity. We’ll also offer tips for finding and keeping an accountability partner. Maybe you’ll find a partner who can help you realize your goals.

At AHCJ’s Lunch and Learns, freelancer members chat about a designated topic over Zoom every third Thursday of the month at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The Zoom link is always the same.

'No one can see you now': What states are doing to boost primary care
2024-11-21 13:00 - 14:15
Evidence abounds that access to primary care improves health and lowers costs. According to one estimate, the U.S. could save $67 billion a year if everyone saw a primary care provider as their main source of care. And yet, only 5% of health care spending in this country goes to primary care, less than in any other Western democracy.

This webinar will examine what actions states — which regulate the insurance industry and run the Medicaid programs — have taken to increase spending on primary care and what effect these efforts can have on costs.

AHCJ Board President Felice Freyer, an independent journalist, will lead the discussion with three national experts on the topic.

Related webinars

How rising health care prices are harming employers and families

Hospital mergers and health care price increases: A primer for reporters

This webinar series, supported by the Peterson-Milbank Program on Sustainable Health Care Costs, covers the affordability of health care by diving into health care cost drivers and looking at solutions. Journalists will learn about ways that states, employers and other stakeholders can promote affordable health care and will be able to tell these stories in the context of their state and local communities.

Moderator

Felice J. Freyer

Independent journalistPresident, AHCJ Board of Directors

Felice J. Freyer is a health care journalist based in Rhode Island. For 10 years until last spring, she was a health reporter at the Boston Globe, where the crisis in primary care was among the topics she covered. Before the Globe, Freyer was the medical writer at the Providence Journal. Now working independently, she has published articles in the Boston Globe Magazine and Harvard Public Health Magazine, as well as teaching journalism at Emerson College. She was elected to the AHCJ board in 2009 and currently serves as its president.

Christopher F. Koller

President, Milbank Memorial FundFormer Rhode Island Health Insurance Commissioner

Christopher F. Koller is President of the Milbank Memorial Fund and Publisher of the Milbank Quarterly. The Fund is a more than 100-year-old operating foundation that improves population health and health equity by connecting leaders with evidence and sound experience.

Before joining the Fund in 2013, he served the state of Rhode Island for eight years as the country’s first health insurance commissioner. Prior to that, he was CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island. He has served in numerous national and state health policy advisory capacities and was elected to the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine in 2023. Koller is also a professor of practice in the School of Public Health at Brown University. He resides in East Providence, R.I. with his wife, Colette Cook.

Diane Rittenhouse, M.D., MPH

Senior fellow, MathematicaProfessor of family medicine and health policy, UCSF

Diane Rittenhouse, M.D., MPH, has two decades of experience researching health care organization, delivery, finance, and workforce — and translating that research into policy. She received a Generalist Physician Faculty Scholar award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and has been recognized in the United States and Europe as a leading primary care researcher.

Currently, she is leading several projects focused on optimizing the primary care team workforce; strengthening the connection between primary care and health equity; diversifying California’s physician workforce; and understanding and supporting independently owned physician practices. She serves as an expert advisor for the development of the Health of U.S. Primary Care Scorecard recommended by the National Academies of Sciences, Education and Medicine. Dr. Rittenhouse is a family physician who practiced for 10 years in a community-based faculty practice at the University of California, San Francisco.

Matthew Probst, PA-C

Physician assistant and primary care provider, Sunrise Medical Clinic

Matthew Probst is a Physician Assistant and Primary Care Provider at Sunrise Medical Clinic in Las Vegas, New Mexico. He is also Director of Rural Engagement for the University of New Mexico Office for Community Health. In 2019 he was the American Academy of Physician Assistants PA of the Year and recipient of the Primary Care Community Leadership Award and the National Association of Rural Mental Health Schumacher Award for Excellence in Clinical Service.

In 2020, U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich named him a Hometown Hero, and New Mexico Magazine recognized him as a True Hero for COVID-19 response. In 2021, Mr. Probst was the New Mexico Alliance of School-Based Health Center Champion and the National Organization of State Rural Health Offices Community Star. In addition to the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services, Matt currently serves New Mexico on the Health Care Workforce Committee, the Primary Care Council, and the Aging and Long-Term Services Division Policy Advisory Committee.

Lunch and Learn: Jump start your freelance biz into 2025
2024-12-12 13:00 - 14:00
The new year is the perfect time to reassess your freelance business. Some freelancers formally do this — even holding a solo business retreat at a hotel or other venue, where they can review their past work, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their freelance business and consider other paths forward. We’ll hear from freelancers who have done this successfully — and discuss other ways to pause and reset for 2025.

At AHCJ’s Lunch and Learns, freelancer members chat about a designated topic over Zoom every third Thursday of the month at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. This event takes place on the second Thursday of the month due to the holidays. The Zoom link is always the same.

What Kennedy could do: Reporting on U.S. vaccine policy and the powers of the HHS Secretary
2024-12-18 14:00 - 15:00
President-elect Trump’s choice for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., could significantly impact the perception and uptake of vaccines. Whether he or any of Trump’s other vaccine-skeptical nominees receive Senate confirmation, signs suggest the incoming administration may attempt to change long-established vaccine policy in the U.S.

This webinar will cover the ins and outs of how vaccines are approved and recommended, how vaccine injuries are adjudicated and compensated, and the powers of the HHS Secretary over those procedures. We’ll cover what the secretary has the power to undo, what checks and balances exist on those powers, and what the potential consequences of those actions could be.

Led by AHCJ Health Beat leader for infectious disease Tara Haelle, this webinar will prepare reporters for anticipating possible policy moves in the new administration.

Moderator

Tara Haelle

Health Beat Leader for Infectious Diseases, AHCJ

Tara Haelle is AHCJ’s health beat leader for infectious diseases and medical studies. She’s an independent science/health journalist, author, speaker, and photographer. Her work has appeared in the National Geographic, Scientific American, Texas Monthly, Science News, Medscape/WebMD, The New York Times, Wired, and O Magazine, among others. She specializes in public health and medical research, particularly vaccines, infectious diseases, maternal and pediatric health, mental health, healthcare disparities, and misinformation. She also covers medical research conferences and edits Long COVID Connection on Medium. Haelle earned a master’s in photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin, and her images have appeared in Texas Monthly, NPR, the, Chicago Sun-Times and elsewhere.

Paul A. Offit, M.D.

Director, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Vaccine Education CenterMaurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology, University of PennsylvaniaPaul A. Offit, M.D., is the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as well as the Maurice R. Hilleman Professor of Vaccinology and a Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Offit is currently a voting member on the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Committee and has previously served on the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices to the CDC. He is also the co-inventor of the rotavirus vaccine, RotaTeq, recommended for universal use in infants by the CDC in 2006 and by the WHO in 2013. This vaccine was estimated recently to save about 165,000 lives a year. He is also the author of 11 books written for the public about science, medicine, and vaccines.

Dorit Rubinstein Reiss, LLB, Ph.D.

James Edgar Hervey Chair in Litigation, UC Law San FranciscoDorit Rubinstein Reiss, LLB, Ph.D. is a professor of law and the James Edgar Hervey Chair in Litigation at UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). She specializes in vaccine law and policy, including exemption laws and tort liability related to non-vaccination. She also teaches administrative law and public health law. She published in law reviews, peer-reviewed journals and blogs on legal and policy issues related to vaccines and co-authored a book on Vaccines Law and Policy with Professor Y. Tony Yang.

Be careful out there: A digital safety primer for journalists
2025-01-15 13:00 - 14:00
More than 40 percent of journalists dealt with threats and online harassment in 2022. When policymakers turn their attention to science and health issues such as vaccination, access to abortion care, and the health dangers of climate change, journalists covering these topics must be prepared to protect themselves amidst online communities that can mirror — or amplify — harmful rhetoric.

Join AHCJ and the National Association of Science Writers (NASW) for a webinar with Alison Joyce, a senior analyst on the Information Security team at The New York Times, and Tat Bellamy-Walker, program manager of Digital Safety Training and Resources (Media) at PEN America as they share best practices and resources on digital safety for journalists.

Attendees will learn how to gauge their own risks, assess their habits and leave with a list of resources they can deploy to improve their digital safety.

Moderator

Jyoti Madhusoodanan

Civic Science Fellow, AHCJJyoti Madhusoodanan is AHCJ’s Civic Science Fellow, covering race in health algorithms as part of a year-long fellowship funded by the Doris Duke Foundation. She is an independent science and health journalist who regularly covers biomedical research, health equity, clinical trials, and the translation of basic research into clinical care.

Her reporting on race adjustments in clinical algorithms was supported by a 2020 project fellowship from the MIT Knight Science Journalism program; reporting on other topics has received fellowship support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, the GSA Journalists in Aging program, and others.

Madhusoodanan is a senior contributor to Undark magazine and her work regularly appears in Nature, Scientific American, and other outlets. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Science Writers.

Alison Joyce

Senior analyst, New York Times Information Security TeamAlison Joyce is a Senior Analyst on the Information Security team at The New York Times. She specializes in providing tailored training and awareness to staff across the organization on digital security policies and best practices.

Alison has successfully built internal security programs for the newsroom, business departments and senior leadership. Prior to joining The Times, she spent six years working in the financial industry as an Incident Response Analyst. Alison earned a master’s degree in Cybersecurity Policy and Governance from Boston College.

Tat Bellamy-Walker (He/They) is the Program Manager of Digital Safety Training and Resources (Media) at PEN America. Previously, Bellamy-Walker was a communities reporter at The Seattle Times and a newsroom equity team committee member. Bellamy-Walker is program co-director of the Trans Journalists Association’s Peer Career Network, the organization’s inaugural mentoring program.

Before joining The Seattle Times, they worked for NBC News’ diversity verticals and as a digital editor/reporter at Gay City News. Their work has also appeared in The Daily Beast, Inc. Magazine and on CNN. In 2023, they were selected for IWMF’s HEFAT training in Austin, Texas. Bellamy-Walker later shared digital safety tips in a local journalists webinar with the Council on Foreign Relations. They have also been a panel speaker at Investigative Reporters and Editors, NABJ, NAHJ and NLGJA.

Bellamy-Walker has a Master’s in Journalism with a concentration in Health and Science from the Craig Newmark School of Journalism.

Lunch and Learn: Tips and tools to meet your goals
2025-01-16 13:00 - 14:00
At AHCJ’s Lunch and Learns, freelancer members chat about a designated topic over Zoom every third Thursday of the month at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The Zoom link is new for 2025.

Finding and sharing hospital prices with your audience
2025-01-29 12:00 - 13:00
In 2001, the federal Department of Health and Human Services required all hospitals to post the prices they charge patients for services. Many, but not all, hospitals have complied with this rule. Still, finding the actual prices that hospitals charge for 300 non-urgent (called “shoppable”) services is challenging if not impossible for most consumers.

That gives journalists an opportunity to empower consumers by finding and publishing hospital price information and to ensure that hospitals are complying with the now four-year-old federal rule.

During this AHCJ webinar, journalists will learn to gather price information from hospitals and compare prices among multiple hospitals. You’ll hear from a Colorado journalist who put transparency to the test when she was expecting a baby and learn from two experts about tools and resources you can use to find prices.

You’ll walk away with the ability to find out what hospitals charge, including what health insurers will pay hospitals and what consumers can expect to pay out of pocket for each service.

This webinar series, supported by the Peterson-Milbank Program on Sustainable Health Care Costs, covers the affordability of health care by diving into health care cost drivers and looking at solutions. Journalists will learn about ways that states, employers and other stakeholders can promote affordable health care and will be able to tell these stories in the context of their state and local communities.

Moderator

Joseph Burns

AHCJ Health Policy Beat LeaderJoseph Burns is AHCJ’s health beat leader on health policy and insurance. He’s an independent journalist based in Brewster, Mass., who has covered health care, health policy and the business of care since 1991. Burns has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Fortune, Hospitals & Health Networks, and Medical Economics, among others.

Early in his journalism career, Burns worked as a reporter in Connecticut, first for The Wallingford Post (a weekly), and then The Meriden Record-Journal (a daily), and later for The Hartford Courant (the largest daily newspaper in the state and the nation’s oldest newspaper). For The Courant, he was a reporter, copy editor and regional news editor. During this time, he also taught news writing at the University of Connecticut.

Patricia Kelmar

Senior director, Public Interest Research GroupKelmar directs PIRG’s health care campaigns, supports its state offices on state-based health initiatives and works with patient advocates nationwide. Previously, she worked as a senior policy advisor at the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute, as an associate state director at AARP New Jersey and as a consumer advocate at NJPIRG. In 2022, she was appointed to the federal Ground Ambulance and Patient Billing Advisory Committee.

Kiana Moore

CEO, Moore ConsultingKiana Moore is the CEO of Moore Consulting, in Washington, D.C. For its clients, Moore Consulting analyzes data to measure outcomes and Inform health care policy. Those clients include the federal Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, the CDC, CMS, the National Institutes of Health and the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

Megan Wingerter

Health care reporter, The Denver PostMegan Wingerter, health care reporter for The Denver Post. Wingerter is an award-winning journalist who joined the Denver Post in February 2019 as an education reporter and switched to health in 2020. She previously worked at The Oklahoman, Kansas News Service, The Topeka (Kansas) Capitol-Journal and The Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle. She has won awards for business coverage in Kansas and for column writing in Michigan.

Unraveling the myth: ProPublica's investigation into a bad doc and a reckless hospital
2025-02-13 14:00 - 15:00
The infamous “Dr. Death” case in Texas showed just how little oversight there often is of physicians. When confronted with a neurosurgeon who was maiming and killing patients, multiple hospitals looked the other way. Meanwhile, the state medical board dragged its feet in taking punitive action, and Texas malpractice law discouraged private lawsuits.

Now, ProPublica reporter Dave McSwane has investigated yet another shocking case of prolonged physician misconduct — this time in a very different setting. Montana oncologist Thomas Weiner, who was beloved by his patients and their families as well as his staff, now stands accused of numerous legal and ethical breaches that harmed and killed patients.

Among the infractions: treating patients for cancers they didn’t actually have, changing end-of-life care directives without patient consent, and improperly prescribing narcotics. In this webinar, McSwane will talk about what he’s learned about why, in this case, hospital officials and fellow physicians remained silent about their suspicions that Weiner was harming patients, and why federal regulators and health plans failed to step in to stop the abuses.

Moderator

Mary Chris Jaklevic

AHCJ Health Beat Leader for Patient SafetyMary Chris Jaklevic is AHCJ’s health beat leader for patient safety based in Chicago. She’s an independent journalist who has covered health care finance, clinical care and medical research for a variety of professional and consumer publications. Her interest in patient safety issues and the potential harms of medical interventions was honed by her experience as a contributor to HealthNewsReview.org, a project that aimed to improve health care journalism by critiquing the accuracy and balance of media messages about medical treatments and tests. She’s a longtime AHCJ member and served on the board for two terms.

J. David McSwane

Reporter, ProPublicaJ. David McSwane is a reporter in ProPublica’s Washington, D.C., office. Previously, he was an investigative reporter for the Dallas Morning News, where his reporting on the state’s outsourced Medicaid system, which benefited companies that systematically deny care to sick children and disabled adults, spurred multiple legislative reforms. Before that he wrote for the Austin American-Statesman and a small Florida newspaper. McSwane’s reporting has spurred new laws and state and federal criminal investigations, forced belt-tightening lawmakers to invest in social programs and won some trinkets along the way, including Harvard’s Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting, the Worth Bingham Prize, a Scripps Howard award, an IRE award and the Peabody. He’s a four-time Livingston Award finalist.

Decentralized: Navigating the future of inclusive clinical trials
2025-02-19 13:00 - 14:00
Decentralized clinical trials have emerged as a promising approach to overcome traditional barriers, enhance representation, and improve the quality of research by bringing biomedical studies directly into communities. However, recent policy changes under the Trump administration, including the removal of FDA guidance on clinical trial diversity, have raised concerns about the future of inclusive research.

Read more about decentralizing clinical trials here.

In this webinar, Ray Dorsey, M.D., professor of neurology and the director of the Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, and Ramita Tandon, Chief Clinical Trials Officer at Walgreens, will discuss how decentralization is reshaping clinical research. They will explore the potential of pharmacy-based trials and strategies for increasing patient engagement.

Join us for an insightful conversation on the future of clinical trials and what it means for patients, researchers, and the healthcare industry.

Moderator

Jyoti Madhusoodanan

AHCJ Civic Science FellowJyoti Madhusoodanan is AHCJ’s Civic Science Fellow, covering race in health algorithms as part of a year-long fellowship funded by the Doris Duke Foundation. She is an independent science and health journalist who regularly covers biomedical research, health equity, clinical trials, and the translation of basic research into clinical care. Her reporting on race adjustments in clinical algorithms was supported by a 2020 project fellowship from the MIT Knight Science Journalism program; reporting on other topics has received fellowship support from the Alicia Patterson Foundation, the GSA Journalists in Aging program, and others. Madhusoodanan is a senior contributor to Undark magazine and her work regularly appears in Nature, Scientific American, and other outlets. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Science Writers.

Moderator

Lara Salahi

AHCJ Health Equity Beat LeaderLara Salahi is AHCJ’s health beat leader on health equity. She’s an award-winning, independent health journalist based in Boston, whose work has appeared in local, national and international television and digital news outlets. She is also the Distinguished Professor of Journalism at Endicott College in Beverley, Mass.

Ray Dorsey, M.D.

Professor of Neurology, University of RochesterRay Dorsey, M.D., is the David M. Levy Professor of Neurology at the University of Rochester and one of the world’s most read, cited, and followed neurologists. With his colleagues, he wrote “Ending Parkinson’s Disease: A Prescription for Action,” a book that provides a prescription for preventing and ending the world’s fastest growing brain disease.

Dorsey previously directed the University of Rochester’s Center for Health + Technology, was elected chair of the international Huntington Study Group, led the movement disorders division and neurology telemedicine at Johns Hopkins, and consulted for McKinsey & Company. He completed his undergraduate degree at Stanford University and pursued his medical education and neurology training at the University of Pennsylvania where he also earned an MBA in healthcare management from the Wharton School.

In 2015, the White House recognized Dorsey as a “Champion for Change” for Parkinson’s disease.

Ramita Tandon

Chief BioPharma Services Officer, WalgreensAs Chief BioPharma Services Officer at Walgreens, Ramita Tandon is responsible for leading and driving growth for the Company’s biopharma services, which includes Walgreens Clinical Trials. In her role, Ramita works across the healthcare and life sciences industries to enable next-generation clinical trials, with the goal of making treatments equitable and accessible to patients.

Ramita brings more than 25 years of leadership and operational experience across a portfolio of industry-leading businesses in real-world evidence and patient-centered health outcomes. Since spearheading the launch of Walgreens Clinical Trials in June 2022, Ramita and her team have been working to make clinical research an inherent care option for patients across the nation when the standard of therapy is not a viable option.

Through its tailored efforts and collaboration with biopharma companies, Ramita and her team have connected with more than 17 million people for potential recruitment into a sponsor-led clinical trial, with that number growing daily. Research shows that only 5% of the U.S. population participates in clinical trials and nearly 80% of trials fail to meet their enrollment goals in the timeline presented, which often contributes to delays in getting novel therapies to patients.

Ultimately, Ramita and her team’s main goal is to bring community pharmacy-led clinical trials to patients quicker by meeting them where they want to be met…in their own communities.

Lunch and Learn: Freelancer free-for-all
2025-02-20 13:00 - 14:00
At AHCJ’s Lunch and Learns, freelancer members chat about a designated topic over Zoom every third Thursday of the month at 1 p.m. Eastern Time. The Zoom link is new for 2025.

For February’s freelancer free-for-all, journalists can bring any question or issue they want to discuss and we’ll share advice.
