Get data to investigate antipsychotic use in local nursing homes

The Boston Globe recently published a two-part series examining overuse of antipsychotic drugs to sedate elderly nursing home residents, many of whom suffer from dementia and are at risk of serious, sometimes fatal, complications when given these powerful medications.

The series relied on never-before-released data on more than 15,600 nursing homes in the United States, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the federal agency that regulates nursing homes.

The Globe is making available to AHCJ members two sets of raw data obtained from CMS so that members can do their own analyses of nursing homes in their areas.

Otto named as AHCJ’s core topic leader on oral health

Mary Otto

Journalist Mary Otto will be AHCJ’s oral health topic leader, helping members stay on top of the news as it relates to this important but sometimes overlooked aspect of health care through timely blog posts, fact sheets, tip sheets and articles.

Otto is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who began writing about oral health at The Washington Post, where she worked for eight years covering social issues including health care and poverty.

In 2007, she wrote the story of 12-year-old Deamonte Driver, a Maryland child covered by Medicaid who died after bacteria from a dental infection spread to his brain. The death of the boy spurred congressional hearings, a revamping of Maryland’s Medicaid dental system and increased attention to oral health access for Medicaid children nationwide.

The oral health topic pages will join AHCJ’s Core Topic pages on health reform and aging. The Core Topic pages are an effort to curate the organization’s resources, data and story ideas using “topic champions” – lead editors – to shape this material into practical guidance in covering stories on those topics. The oral health effort will be made possible thanks to support from the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Apply for premier training on the NIH campus

If you are selected for the AHCJ-National Library of Medicine Fellowship, you’ll spend a week learning how to make best use of medical research, statistics and data. Apply today for the opportunity to:

• Learn how to explore the latest NIH research
• Learn to understand and interpret biomedical statistics
• Take advantage of NLM's data, programs and resources for stronger stories
• Get hands-on training in PubMed, MedlinePlus, ClinicalTrials.gov, ToxNet and Household Products Database

Enhance your medical and scientific reporting through this specialized fellowship. Fellowship includes travel expenses, lodging and stipend. The dates of the fellowship are Sept. 30-Oct. 4. Application deadline: Aug. 6.

Member benefit: Sign up for free access to UpToDate

Your AHCJ membership gives you access to this electronic medical information resource to help you research your health stories. UpToDate can help you research information for your health stories quickly and efficiently. It covers more than 9,500 topics in 19 medical specialties and includes more than 25,000 graphics and images. UpToDate also has links to the Medline abstracts of its 347,000+ references, and a drug database that allows you to research drug names, drug costs, and drug interactions.

AHCJ has arranged for its members to get free access to this valuable reporting tool. Normally, subscriptions cost up to $499 a year. Learn more about how you can use UpToDate in your reporting and sign up for access to this and the other journals and databases that your AHCJ membership entitles you to. 

If you signed up last year, please do so again to continue using UpToDate or your subscription will expire!

Call for candidates: Run for a spot on AHCJ's board of directors

Board members take on committee duties and contribute to association activities, including fundraising, advocacy, helping plan sessions at training events, membership outreach and the newsletter. They may be asked to play a role in other association projects, such as writing, editing or fact-checking resource guides or online teaching modules. Read more about the responsibilities, rights, restrictions and rewards of serving on AHCJ's board.

Six of the 12 director positions come up for election each year for two-year terms. Incumbent board members are allowed to run for re-election. To run for the board, you need to declare your candidacy by noon (Central time) on July 13. Read more about how to run.

AHCJ's Covering Health blog

"Covering Health" features news about health journalists and the business, well-reported stories, tools and resources to help journalists and much more. The blog is updated during the week, with more frequent updates when there is breaking news. Now, more than ever, AHCJ is committed to helping keep journalists who report on health and health care issues informed about the latest news in the field and connected with colleagues.

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 AHCJ names 2012-13 Regional Health Journalism Fellows
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 Special, easy-to-get medical credit cards seduce providers, desperate patients

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