Association of Health Care Journalists

Ask the expert: A White House Q&A on monkeypox
2022-09-22 01:00 (America/New_York)
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.

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

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.

Youth and gender identity and transitioning
2022-09-14 01:00
More than 5% of U.S. young adults say their gender is different from the sex assigned to them at birth. At the same time, at least 15 states are currently debating laws that would restrict the types or timing of interventions designed to support young people wishing to change their gender.
SciLine’s next media briefing will cover: what is known about how gender identity develops, including the role of external factors such as family, school, and community environments; what is involved in the process of medical transition, including the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments; and research findings on how the outward, social transition to a different gender — and the age at which that transition occurs — can impact a person’s mental health. Three experts will brief reporters and then take questions on the record.
Featured panelists
â— Dr. Jenifer McGuire, University of Minnesota
â— Dr. Madeline Deutsch, University of California, San Francisco
â— Dr. Alex Keuroghlian, Harvard Medical School and The Fenway Institute
â— SciLine Director Rick Weiss will moderate the briefing.
When/Where:1:00pm EST, Wednesday, September 14, 2022 (Online)

Find more information and a video about the event, visit this webpage.

Application deadline approaching for IRE freelance fellowships
2022-08-29 01:00
The Investigative Reporters & Editors is acceptinon applications for freelance fellowships awarded to journalists for project proposals of impact, breadth and significance. Priority will be given to proposals that involve whistleblowers, business ethics or privacy issues. The awards support freelance work that will be published in the United States and in outlets that have a primarily American audience.
Fellowship details: Awards range from $1,000 to $2,500, plus a one-year IRE membership.
Application deadline: August 29th, 2022.
For more details and to apply, visit the IRE website.

NAJA National Native Media Conference
2022-08-25 01:00 - 2022-08-27 01:00
The Native American Journalists Association will host the National Native Media Conference Aug. 25-27, 2022 at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix. Special events and programs will also be hosted at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

Investigating alcohol harms in your community
2022-08-18 01:00
New Mexico In Depth recently published an investigative series, “Blind Drunk,” documenting the toll alcohol takes on the state.
The investigation was sweeping. But whatever your beat or focus area, alcohol remains a huge, largely uncovered story with impacts on health, crime, policing, business, culture, or politics.
For reporters as well as others who want to learn more, this briefing by reporter Ted Alcorn will provide an overview of the problem and a basic toolkit to get started with your own investigation into alcohol harms in your community. There will also be time for discussion, questions and answers.
This event is free. Register today and join us on Thursday, August 18 at noon, Mountain Time.
~~~
Ted Alcorn is a writer raised in New Mexico whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post Magazine, among other publications. For New Mexico In Depth he’s investigated how the state’s prisons have ignored an epidemic of hepatitis C, how Albuquerque stood up its branch of non-police emergency response, and how non-profit hospitals shortchange community health. Follow him at @tedalcorn.
New Mexico In Depth is an award-winning, nonprofit media outlet that produces investigative, data-rich stories with an eye on solutions that can be a catalyst for change.

Free SciLine Media Briefing
2022-07-28 01:00
SciLine, a free service for journalists from the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is holding a media briefing about the physical and mental health effects of experiencing extreme heat for different demographics. These include children, older people and outdoor workers. Panelists will discuss trends in deaths, hospitalizations and other outcomes, disparities in outcomes and measures communities can take to keep people safe. Panelists will also take questions from reporters.
When/Where: Thursday, July 28, at 3 p.m. EST (virtual)
Cost: Free
Panelists:

Dr. Perry Sheffield, associate professor of environmental medicine and public health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Amruta Nori-Sarma, assistant professor of environmental health @ Boston University School of Public Health

Moderator:
SciLine Deputy Director Dr. Meredith Drosback
To register, visit the SciLine website.

Follow The Money: American Rescue Plan
2022-07-26 01:00
This Poynter Institute webinar will review how the 2021 American Rescue Plan and other federal stimulus funds are being used in local communities. Participants will:

Gain practical advice on how to track federal spending in local communities.

Learn best practices for spending federal funds on public health, public safety, infrastructure and the environment.

Hear questions from other journalists who are analyzing federal spending.

Instructors include Kristen Hare, a faculty member at the Poynter Institute; Taylor DesOrmeau, a data reporter for MLive; Shelby Harris, a local reporter for Carolina Public Press; Weihua Li, a data reporter at The Marshall Project; and Anastasia Valeeva, a data journalist and editor at The Marshall Project.
Sponsor: Poynter Institute
When/Where: 1:00 p.m. EST, July 26, 2022 (Online)
Cost: Free
To register and for more details, visit Poynter Institute website.

Rural Health Workshop 2022 Chattanooga
2022-07-14 13:00 | DoubleTree by Hilton, 407 Chestnut Street, 37402-4904 United States, Chattanooga, United States
By Katti Gray | July 27, 2022

Finding and parsing rural health data, tracking COVID-19’s curve in rural regions, the promise and limitations of telemedicine for rural health consumers, and reopening rural hospitals were among the topics tackled at AHCJ’s Rural Health Workshop 2022. (Check out full panel recordings.)

During the first in-person Rural Health Workshop since 2019 in Denver, expert panelists also cited ongoing gaps in care for rural patients and shared innovations for filling some of those voids.

The one-day workshop was hosted by the University of Tennessee School of Medicine Chattanooga; the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Nursing; Cempa Community Care and Erlanger Health System. Sponsors were The Commonwealth Fund; the Helmsley Charitable Trust; and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Stories about health in far-flung, medically underserved places are fodder for journalists and essential to improving rural health care, said Rob Headrick, M.D., CHI Memorial Rees Skillern Cancer Institute’s chief of thoracic surgery.

“The challenge for us is how to combine your skills and mine … ” Headrick said during the panel “Bringing health care to the people: mobile screening and other routes to prevention.”

Headrick is among clinicians regularly traveling to rural communities to provide care and boost health literacy so health consumers refine their self-care and treat illnesses early on. “Health care is local, meaning people search for solutions locally,” said Headrick, whose presentation spotlighted mobile lung screening.

“When we get out to the rural communities, there’s at least a perception that they can’t understand or don’t want to understand that I think is completely false … For so long we had this perception that lung cancer was just part of our culture, particularly in the South — that it’s smoking-induced and somehow you deserve [it]. Yet it’s impacting our health care dollars. It’s making us less stable as a family [and] making us less stable as a county or a state.”

When found early, the cure rates for lung cancer — with death rates higher than opioid overdoses, a more often-told news story — are relatively high, Headrick said. But the lack of symptoms for lung cancer and stigma have prevented many who contract cancer from being diagnosed early.

His institute’s mobile unit puts more rural patients in the pool for whom there is 90% cure rate versus the 18% cure rate among those whose lung cancer isn’t detected early.

Making connections and spreading hope

Blake Farmer, a reporter for NPR’s Nashville affiliate and for Kaiser Health News, was among the 60 people who attended the six panels and heard luncheon keynote speaker Stephanie Boynton, vice president and CEO for critical access facilities Erlanger Western Carolina Hospital and in Tennessee, Erlanger Bledsoe Hospital.

“This state has lost more hospitals than any state, except for Texas,” Farmer said at the end of the workshop. “That story is kind of old. What we heard about today was backfilling. How do you get the doctors, the staffing?”

“I came looking for ideas beneath the surface of the headlines I’ve written for years. I’ve just made a list of six or seven stories,” Farmer said. “And I made connections here. I’m logging out of here with a pretty concrete list of stories I’d like to do in the next couple of months.”

Medical student Amanda Lemus, a volunteer organizer at Migrant Equity Southeast, lent her expertise to “Few and far between: How sparse resources shaped the COVID-19 curve in rural communities.” In her fourth year at Medical College of Georgia, she is considering setting up a rural practice.

“My school and my upbringing have led me to want to do this. I’ve seen the need and grown up in it,” said Lemus, a Savannah native whose parents immigrated from Honduras.

“The Latino community is where I’ve seen the most need, especially in Savannah,” she said. “But, also, … in my [medical] rotation, I’ve gone to Vidalia and Claxson, very small towns. I’ve seen the need. I’ve seen how many health care providers there are for the patient population.”

Lemus said she’s encouraged by student-loan debt forgiveness programs for physicians who move to rural areas. “I feel like, once they get an idea of these areas, they’ll actually want to stay there and practice.”

That’s the hope of Leslie Griffin, M.D., family medicine residency director at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine’s Chattanooga campus. As it works to dispatch more newly minted family medicine doctors to rural communities, it’s also expanding their skills in areas of medicine usually associated with physicians with niche specialties.

“Family physicians are the way to go in the rural health track,” said Griffin of that track in her medical school.

Those doctors, she added, “do a lot more than a lot of the communities realize. Yes, we do the adult care, we do the geriatrics. But we also take care of kids. I still deliver babies. We do the g-y-n … We do sports medicine and non-operative orthopedics … pain management, mental health. We have to. There’s no one else to do it.”

Katti Gray (@kattigray) is AHCJ’s core topic leader for behavioral and mental health. A former Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow, Gray is providing resources to help AHCJ members expand their coverage of mental health amid ongoing efforts to de-stigmatize mental illness and to place mental health care on par with all health care.

HOSTS

College of Medicine Chattanooga | College of Nursing

SPONSORS

Rural Health Journalism Workshop 2022
2022-07-14 01:00
Finding and parsing rural health data, tracking COVID-19’s curve in rural regions, the promise and limitations of telemedicine for rural health consumers, and reopening rural hospitals were among the topics tackled at AHCJ’s Rural Health Workshop 2022.

Senate’s health committee to hold hearing following Dobbs decision
2022-07-13 01:00
Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), will lead a hearing on how the Dobbs decision affects reproductive health care in America and the barriers, challenges, and threats it poses to women’s health. The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. on July 13.
All members of the media may watch the hearing remotely at www.help.senate.gov. Check the HELP committee website for more details on the hearing.

Application deadline approaching for Columbia Journalism School Age Boom Academy
2022-06-30 01:00
Annual call for applicants for this free virtual forum to help journalists deepen their coverage of the caregiving crisis across America. Training will be held over four two-hour sessions in October.
When/Where: October, 13, 14, 20 and 21 (online)
Contact: Catilin Hawke, cmh2197@cumc.columbia.edu
Application deadline: June 30, 2022

Breaking the Law or Breaking the Oath: How Abortion Bans Betray America's Patient's and Physicians
2022-06-29 01:00
As the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — and the likely subsequent overturn of Roe v. Wade and Casey v. Planned Parenthood looms — physicians and patients across the country must prepare to navigate the ethical quagmire that abortion bans present. That preparation requires an assessment of the full scope of abortion restrictions’ effects, including how physicians’ ethical obligations to their patients and to the practice of medicine may be reshaped, redirected or even contradicted by the threat posed by laws not founded in science or based on evidence.
This webinar will bring leading physician, legal, and ethicist voices together to discuss how the Dobbs decision betrays America’s patients and physicians — and asks physicians to be complicit by betraying their patients as well. While it’s difficult to anticipate the reach and effects of the oncoming wave of abortion bans and restrictions, panelists will discuss how clinicians must prepare themselves mentally for the changes they will be forced to make and provide ideas on how the medical community can bring the most ethical and comprehensive care possible to patients.
Explore the full agenda and learn about the speakers.
WHEN/WHERE: Noon to 4 p.m. ET, June 29, 2022
Location: Register here.

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.

Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee
2022-06-28 01:00
The FDA’s Advisory Committee will meet in open session to discuss whether and how the SARS-CoV-2 strain composition of COVID-19 vaccines should be modified.
The meeting will include slide presentations with audio components to allow the presentation of materials in a manner that most closely resembles an in-person advisory committee meeting.
When/Where: 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. EST, Tuesday, June 28, 2022 (Online)
For more information and to participate, visit the FDA’s website.

Protecting Immunocompromised Patients through Effective Prevention and Treatment
2022-06-27 01:00
Join the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) for a webinar addressing current recommendations to protect adult immunocompromised patients through effective prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Discussion topics will include current U.S. vaccination recommendations, gaps in immunization coverage among immunocompromised adult patients, and strategies to overcome challenges. Speakers will also address questions submitted by participants, as time allows.
NFID Medical Director William Schaffner, M.D., will moderate the discussion with Kathleen Dooling, MD, MPH, Medical Officer in the Division of Viral Diseases at the CDC and Camille Kotton, MD, Clinical Director of Transplant Infectious Disease and Immunocompromised Host Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.
When/Where: 1:00 PM EST, Monday, June 27, 2022
For more information and to register for this event, visit this webpage.

ECRI holds webinar on CPAP recall
2022-06-23 01:00
The nonprofit group ECRI will hold a webinar June 23 at noon ET about the 2021 recall alert for certain Philips Respironics issued a recall alert for certain CPAP, BiPAP and mechanical ventilator devices due to potential health risks. Polyester-based polyurethane (PE-PUR) foam within the devices can break down, leading to the potential ingestion of black pieces of foam or certain chemicals, while using the device, ECRI said. Although the recall was issued a year ago, a full resolution has not been provided. On the webinar, experts will discuss the cause of the problem and recommendations for helping patients.
When/Where: Noon EST, Wednesday, June 23, 2022
To register, vist the ECRI website.

Data and Policy: Evidence-Based Opioid Use Disorder Treatment
2022-06-23 01:00
If you are covering the opioid epidemic, join this free webinar hosted by The Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts to explain what data is showing about how best to treat opioid use disorder and what policies should be enacted. Speakers include: Arjun Venkatesh, M.D., M.B.A., M.H.S., associate professor and chief of the section of administration in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Yale University, Lisa Clemens-Cope, Ph.D.,, senior research fellow in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute, Peter Treitler, MSW, research specialist in the Center for Health Services Research at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and Bradley Stein, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Opioid Policies, Tools, and Information Center (OPTIC) at the RAND Corporation.
When/Where: 3 p.m. EST, Thursday, June 23, 2022
Visit this webpage to register.

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.

Monkeypox update
2022-06-21 01:00
Monkeypox cases have now been confirmed in more than a dozen U.S. states. SciLine’s next media briefing will cover: science basics about the virus that causes Monkeypox, including transmission dynamics and current U.S. case spread; prevention and treatment options, including existing vaccines and their limitations; and lessons learned from COVID-19 and other outbreaks that can inform the country’s public health response to Monkeypox.
Featured experts include three scientists: Dr. Anne Rimoin of the University of California, Los Angeles; Dr. Inger Damon of the CDC. Dr. Amira Roess of George Mason University. They will brief reporters and then take questions. The discussion will be moderated by SciLine Director Rick Weiss.
When/Where: 2-3 p.m. EST, Tuesday, June 21 (online)
Visit this webpage to register. https://sciline.org/public-health/monkeypox-update/

What’s Next in Home and Community-Based Services?
2022-06-17 01:00
During this webinar hosted by the Alliance for Health Policy,panelists will provide an overview of home and community-based services, including populations receiving these services, enrollment numbers, workforce challenges, benefits of HCBS and barriers to caring for complex populations. Speakers will also discuss recent federal policy measures taken to bolster HCBS as well as potential long-term policy levers to better improve this model.
When/Where: 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. EST, Friday, June 17 (online)
Check out this webpage for more information and to register.

Lunch and Learn (Virtual)
2022-06-16 01:00
Join us Thursday, June 16 for AHCJ’s Lunch & Learn on contracts. We’re going to support one another and talk about rights-grabbing clauses that are sneaking in. Bring questions comments and negotiation strategies!
When/Where: 1:00 p.m. ET, June 16 (virtual)
View the webcastMeeting ID: 961 8036 2044

Facts in a Time of Fiction: Reporting the truth amid lies and disinformation
2022-06-10 01:00
Journalists have long been charged with sorting fact from fiction through their reporting. But what happens when readers redefine what they see as truth and what they’ll accept as fact?
New York Times writer and author Elizabeth Williamson, whose critically-acclaimed book “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth” published this spring, will describe how she threaded together more than 400 interviews, 10,000 pages of court testimony and other records, and on-the-ground reporting to trace a line from conspiracy theories around Sandy Hook to Jan. 6, 2021.
Participants will learn to:

Identify how misinformation and political conspiracy theories have spread.
Work with sensitivity and clarity while reporting on conspiracy theories.
Pre-bunk conspiracy theories through early reporting.
Use trauma-informed reporting methods while working with people suffering tragedy.
Organize reporting and deep research to craft a long-form narrative.

When/Where: 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. EST, Friday, June 10, 2022 (virtual)
Register for free using this link.

Reporting in An Age of Lies and Disinformation
2022-06-10 01:00
“Journalists have long been charged with sorting fact from fiction through their reporting. But what happens when readers redefine what they see as truth and what they’ll accept as fact?” asks the National Press Club’s Journalism Institute.
In a one-hour webinar at 11:30 am ET on June 10, New York Times writer Elizabeth Williamson will share the insights she gained into how conspiracies grow as she reported and wrote her critically acclaimed book, “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth,” published this spring.
The institute says, “Participants will learn to:

Identify how misinformation and political conspiracy theories have spread;
Work with sensitivity and clarity while reporting on conspiracy theories;
Pre-bunk conspiracy theories through early reporting;
Use trauma-informed reporting methods while working with people suffering tragedy; and
Organize reporting and deep research to craft a long-form narrative.”

Registration is free.

Innovations in Healthy Aging 2022 Summit: Bridging Academia and Industry
2022-06-08 01:00
University of Arizona Health Sciences researchers and other leaders in the field of aging will discuss health care, legal and environmental issues as they relate to meeting the needs of a diverse, aging population. The event is free and open to the public; it’s hosted by Innovations in Healthy Aging, a strategic initiative of UArizona Health Sciences, Registration is required. To confirm attendance or to schedule interviews, contact Annisa Westcott at annisa@arizona.edu or 520-626-8447.
When/Where: 9:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m. EST, June 8, at the University of Arizona Outreach and Collaboration in Washington D.C., and online.
Visit the organization’s site to register.

Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Markup
2022-06-08 01:00
The Senate’s (HELP) Committee is holding a special session to review and revise a bill that would make changes to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policies. This session is known as a markup.
Titled the FDA Safety and Landmark Advancements (FDASLA) Act, this bill being marked up would reauthorize the existing laws that allow the FDA to get payments from companies for reviews of prescription drugs and medical devices. These user fees are steered toward keeping the FDA’s review operations adequately staffed to prevent delays in decisions on applications. (This 2021 report from the Congressional Research Service provides more details on the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA.)
Congress reauthorizes the PDUFA law every five years. The current authorization expires in September, effectively setting a tough deadline for Congress. The reauthorization of the PDUFA law also provides a vehicle for members of Congress to make other changes in FDA policies. Among the proposals included in the draft bill are attempts to give the FDA more clear authority to compel drugmakers to prove that drugs cleared by accelerated approval truly offer a significant benefit to patients.
When/Where: 10:00 a.m EST, Wednesday, June 8, 2022 (online)
Check this link on the HELP page for the webcast.
See the HELP committee’s press release and section-by-section explainer of the bill.

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.

DIY Marketing for Independent Podcasts
2022-05-26 01:00
Whether you are an experienced podcaster or just starting out, you’ll have much to learn about cost-effective strategies for promoting your podcast from this virtual 90-minute webinar. It is aimed at independent podcasters with little to no marketing budget.
The instructor is Lynn Casper, the producer of the long-running queer music podcast, Homoground.
Sponsor: Association of Independents in Radio (AIR)
When/Where: Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. EST (Online)
Cost: Free for AIR members and $50 for non-members
Visit this website to register.

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.
