Insights

<p>I <a href="/blogs/octomom-was-just-start-how-evaluate-your-local-fertility-clinic-part-one">wrote</a> a few weeks ago about the coverage of <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/03/hospital-staff-fired… Suleman</a>, the unemployed woman with six kids who, with the help of a fertility doctor, ended up with eight more.</p><p>I talked about how you can use CDC data as a jumping-off point for stories about fertility practices in your area.</p>

<p>Public health officials are increasingly concerned about a possible pandemic amid <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-flu25-2009apr25,0,1963704.st…; of hundreds of new cases of swine flu in Mexico that have killed up to 60 people. Eight swine flu cases have been reported in the United States, in California and Texas. Mexican authorities are taking drastic measures to contain the swine flu outbreak, closing schools and universities in Mexico City.

<p>John Carey, a 20-year veteran at <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/">BusinessWeek</a&gt;, wrote a story that set the pharmaceutical world on its ear in January 2008. Titled "<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_04/b4068052092994.htm">… Cholesterol Drugs Do Any Good?</a>," the article systematically broke down the many myths behind the so-called "miracle cure" for heart disease: statins. Carey's story won an <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/awards-winners.php?Year=2008">award</a&…; from the Association of Health Care Journalists at its conference in Seattle.</p>

<p>In a provocative April 9 <a href="http://diseasemanagementcareblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/will-health-insur…;, Dr. Jaan Sidorov, who writes the <a href="http://diseasemanagementcareblog.blogspot.com/">Disease Management Care Blog</a>, envisions how federal health reforms could prompt health insurers to consolidate to the point where, like AIG, they are "too big to fail." </p>

<p>Journalists - particularly those in rural areas - will definitely want to follow the epidemiological investigation of <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/flu/swine/recommendations.htm">swine flu</a> that struck a nine-year-old Imperial County girl and a 10-year-old boy in adjacent San Diego County.The kids are fine now, but public health officials have never before seen this strain of swine flu in the United States. Here is the AP <a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzz357patY4-QaJFvo9O9…;

<p>Those of us lucky enough to attend New York Medicaid Inspector General Jim Sheehan's talk Saturday at the <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/">Association of Health Care Journalists</a> conference in Seattle heard him make reference to <a href="http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/fed_regs/actions/2009/fr01062.htm">Dr. Jayam Krishna-Iyer</a>. I was curious about the back story. Here it is:</p>

<p>A doctor who can't prescribe drugs is like a fish that can't swim. It's usually a sign that something is wrong.</p>

<p>I wrote a <a href="/blogs/130">post</a> earlier this week about a <a href="http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reportsitem.aspx?id=100952">Nieman Reports</a> article by <a href="http://www.townsendletter.com/June2008/nutmed0608.htm">Dr. John Abramson</a>, a clinical instructor at Harvard and outspoken critic of the pharmaceutical industry. After serving in the National Health Service Corps, Abramson worked as a family physician for 20 years in Massachusetts.

<p>Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) on Friday gave an engaging speech on his <a href="http://wyden.senate.gov/issues/Legislation/Healthy_Americans_Act.cfm">h… reform plan</a> at the <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/calendar-details.php?id=175&amp;EventTy… of Health Care Journalists conference</a> in Seattle, getting in a nice laugh line when he called <a href="http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/faqs/faq_consumer_cobra.HTML">COBRA insurance</a> “the only federal program named after a poisonous snake.”</p>

<p>Doctors see a lot of naked people.</p><p>It starts in medical school when they see a lot of dead naked people, and one would think that after cutting into a cadaver and examining body parts in great detail a naked body would lose a little of its allure.</p><p>Not so for <a href="https://fortress.wa.gov/doh/providercredentialsearch/ProviderDetail_1.a…. Kamal F. Aboulhosn</a> of Yakima, Wash.</p>