Martha Shirk

"Narrowing of networks" was an abstract concept to me until Blue Shield narrowed my own network of healthcare providers, most of whom I have been seeing for 18 years.

The 2014 KIDS COUNT Data Book reminds us of how much progress we've made in 25 years to assure that children grow up healthy and cared for. But there is still much work to be done.

Congratulations to four recent California Endowment Health Journalism Fellows for being chosen for 2012 AHCJ Awards for their Fellowship project.

<p>America has trash pickers, too. A visit to a recycling facility in San Jose, California, suggests numerous health and workplace safety stories for journalists to explore in their communities.</p>

<p>Dori Maynard, the president of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, spends her life talking to journalists about how factors like race, gender, and age affect our understanding of what's news and our ability to empathize with our subjects. She spoke compellingly about these issues just a few weeks ago at our most recent Fellowship sessions. As she waited for a foundation executive earlier this month in the lobby of a Hampton Inn in Washington, she had a chilling firsthand experience that will no doubt inform her presentations to come.

<p><!--StartFragment--></p><p class="MsoNormal">A conference on health disparities for an audience of journalists is bound to produce lots of story ideas, and the one under way in Washington, organized by the National Association of Black Journalists, is no exception.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Here are some ideas for stories that have emerged from two days (so far) of discussions:</p>

<p><!--StartFragment--></p><p>In the middle of the week that is likely to determine the outcome for President Obama’s health reform effort, <a href="http://hhs.gov/">HHS</a&gt; Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took time out from the fray on Thursday to talk to journalists about health disparities.</p>