Insights

The health beat is so rich with documents, data and smart people that it can be hard to sort through it all under deadline pressure. But if you look in the right places, you can quickly report intelligent stories that cut through the noise and get noticed.

Miranda Dyer's young son started suffering from migraines at a young age. Tests would later reveal signs of a genetically inherited heart disorder, passed down by his mother. The discovery forced the family to make a very difficult decision.

A reporting project that aimed to tease out the root causes of homelessness in one California community ran into a few roadblocks along the way. Here's what one reporter took away from the experience, and what he might do differently next time.

A conference held last week in San Francisco marked the rising prominence of childhood adversity as a key concept in public health circles. The event also highlighted recent data that give a newly detailed look at how childhood adversity plays out across, race, class, and geographic boundaries.

Women's Health and Men's Health Online are both looking for editorial assistants to join their team. Plus, if you're a resident of California, make sure to apply for the 2015 California Health Journalism Fellowship. Applications are due Dec. 1, 2014.

Is Obamacare really at risk now that Republicans have taken the Senate? The core of the law will likely survive, thanks to the presidential veto power. Still, sections of it could be pruned away by the legislature. Here are a few possibilities the media has highlighted.

“Simply asking, listening, and implicitly accepting is a very powerful tool,” Dr. Vince Felitti says. The message: “You’re still an acceptable person even though you’ve told me this story you’ve been ashamed of all your life.”

Doctors told Miranda Dyer that her problems were in her head and that she should just proceed as if everything were normal. That was until another doctor told her that she likely had a genetic disorder that could have been passed on to her kids. She needed surgery immediately.

California mirrors the country's rising rate of C-section births — up by 50 percent in 10 years. That worries experts, who say the procedure carries added costs and risks. But data-driven efforts are underway in the state to turn the tide, with some notable early success.

Proposition 46, the California ballot measure backed by plaintiffs’ attorneys and opposed by physicians, was soundly defeated by a 2-to-1 margin. The fact that Proposition 46 was a bundle trying to be all things to all patient safety advocates was probably its downfall.