The courses formerly known as 8350

Friday, April 11 was a watershed for health and medical journalism at Grady College. That morning, members of the graduate faculty voted unanimously to create a new MA concentration at Grady College.

This means the courses formerly known as JRMC 8350, instead of being rakish “special topics” offerings, will now be in the official University of Georgia course catalog. From now on, they will be known as JRMC 7355, Health and Medical Journalism, and 7356, Advanced Health and Medical Journalism.

Not only that, but in late 2008 we begin publicizing the new MA concentration and recruiting students for enrollment in Fall 2009. There will be national publicity campaign, probably some huge parties –who knows what the roll-out will look like?

Tell your friends: we want to attract students with strong liberal arts and sciences backgrounds, in addition to those with undergraduate training in journalism, who are passionate about covering health, medicine and health policy in the historic Black Belt.

A personal note of thanks to the brave souls who helped road test these courses during the past two years. I am indebted to Kaylan Clemons, Kimberly Davis, Joe Dennis, Colin Dunlop, Tim Echols, Christy Fricks, Lenette Golding, Geoffrey Graybeal, Stuart Hendrick, Jui-Chen Liao, Alison Loudermilk, Tabitha Lovell, Sarah McLean, Pearman Parker, Grey Pentecost, Amber Roessner, Lindsey Scott, Catharin Shepard, Elizabeth Swanson, Michael Tannebaum, Tom Zimmerman and Wendi Zongker.

Ahead of the curve in Athens, GA

Last week closed with a flurry of news stories about how the rich are not only getting richer but also living longer than poor people in America. These stories were triggered by a new analysis of Department of Health and Human Services data conducted by GK Singh and M. Siahpush.

The night before the story really broke, Grady College and OneAthens gave Athenians an advance look at another perspective on the same sad story. Together we previewed part one of "Unnatural Causes: Is inequality making us sick?"

This new PBS documentary series begins airing nationally on March 27. It is a fast-paced, vivid piece of filmmaking that turns mountains of data into flesh and blood stories about real people. Three of the characters work at the same hospital, but social and economic factors make their lives -- and life expectancies -- quite different.

During panel discussions after the screening, local activists and public health experts agreed that everything the filmmakers documented in Louisville, KY, also happens in Athens.

On the plus side, we've been engaged in a community-wide study of poverty for nearly two years now and have plans for addressing it. Partners for a Prosperous Athens has spawned OneAthens, the implementation stage of the effort, and Grady College ADPR students are helping publicize this effort.

So although we're far from perfect in the Classic City, we're already moving in a good direction.

Different voices

Parking lots are uncrowded, hallways are quiet, and outside the Japanese magnolias are unfurling their flowers. It's spring break and we have time to catch up on sleep and work.

When we come back on March 17, we'll resume the conversation that journalists have all the time: about stories and the many, many ways to tell them.

Thanks to the Peabody Awards and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts we have a chance to hear from Neal Baer,a Hollywood writer-producer-physician-activist who is executive producer of the NBC series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and a former writer and executive producer of the Peabody Award-winning ER.

Dr. Baer also maintains a pediatric practice, teaches college courses, and is part of an African HIV/AIDS awareness project. On the evening of March 17, he will give a lecture about entertainment's capacity to teach and heal, screen an ER episode he wrote, and engage in a conversation and Q&A moderated by Dr. Horace Newcomb, Director of the Peabody Awards. The event is free and takes place from 7:30 - 10:00 p.m. in the Tate Student Center movie theater.

Three weeks later, students in JRMC 8350 will hear from a dramatically different type of storyteller. Journalist, author and medical ethicist Harriet Washington just won the 2007 National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction. Washington, who spoke last fall during the McGill symposium, was honored for her book Medical Apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial times to the present.

On April 9, Washington will be in class to talk about how she researched and wrote one especially chilling chapter in her brave, exquisitely researched book.

Neal Baer and Harriet Washington both tell important stories about health and disease, medical care and catastrophic neglect.

Both are voices we're fortunate to hear at UGA.

The hungry outboard mind

In-demand magazine writer Clive Thompson says that writing hundreds of thousands of words for his blog, www.collisiondetection.net, has rocked his world professionally, intellectually and socially.

Something has certainly worked for this motor-mouthed, 30-something Canadian. He washed up on Manhattan Island 10 years ago, not exactly a household name, and today he is a high-profile writer for The New York Times Magazine, a columnist for Wired and a frequent contributor to a slew of other major magazines and online publications.

On February 19, Thompson spoke to nearly 200 science writers who gathered to celebrate 25th anniversary of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Over the past quarter century, this highly sought, nine-month residency program has changed the lives – and generally boosted the careers – of 254 journalists from 22 countries.

Clive Thompson and I are two of those lucky folks.

Thompson began blogging during his 2002-2003 fellowship year because he missed the discipline of writing every day. Knight fellows are urged not to commit journalism during the program, and instead to gorging themselves in the infinite candy stores called MIT and Harvard.

He blogged about cool stuff encountered during classes, guest lectures and field trips (including a first-hand look at health care in Cuba). Pretty soon Thompson came to view the blog as his “outboard brain” – a lasting repository for his thoughts, even the ones he otherwise forgot.

Five years later, Thompson still averages two posts a week – typically inspired by what he reads in scientific journals. What he writes has little in common with the unhinged raving that has given blogging a bad name. Thompson typically spends about 30 minutes thinking about what he’s read, sampling additional sources to get a better handle on what caught his eye in the first place. The writing takes another 45 minutes or so.

“Blogging has made me a better writer,” Thompson said. “It gives me a chance to practice finding the “aha” moment and it keeps me hunting for new material because the blog is hungry.” The blog, in turn, feeds the work that pays the bills.

“It serves as an intellectual calling card for editors, a place where they can see the breadth of my interests,” he said. Sometimes blogging helps him refine ideas that will later turn into stories; sometimes the exercise “helps me discover what I’m interested in when I don’t have to please an editor.”

Like all writers, Thompson has bleak moments when he doesn’t have a story idea in his head but needs to pitch an editor. Desperate, he scrolls through his “outboard brain” until a story idea surfaces from the archived posts.

Some of the blog’s value is more “cognitive” than commercial. “It provides a lasting record of what I’ve been thinking about,” Thompson said. “It reminds me of what I’ve forgotten.”

Thompson also touted the social benefits of the blog for a guy who spends most of his time home alone, playing “Halo” to avoid filing stories. Over the years, the blog has attracted about 2,000 readers who visit and comment weekly.

“These are very smart people,” Thompson said, and without the blog he would never have found this community. If he misunderstands a technical nuance, or if he makes a mistake, loyal readers set him straight in a hurry. He sometimes “road tests” story ideas with them: if a topic resonates he’ll likely pursue it.

There are some places that www.collisiondetection.net won’t go. Thompson makes no personal disclosures, posts no family pictures or videos, tells no stories about wild nights on the town or baby’s first tooth.

“I blog to help my thinking and to improve my journalism,” Thompson said.

Judging by the results, it works for him.

Mental dynamite

Last night I saw a 2006 movie called "Accepted." The premise is that a high school kid creates a fake college to pacify his status-conscious parents, who've flipped at the news that he was rejected by every college where he applied. So Bartelby and his friends create a logo and website for South Harmon Institute of Technology. One thing leads to another and pretty soon the fake college has a real campus peopled with hundreds of other supposed rejects.

Of course the forces of darkness try to bring down the operation. But Bartelby counters by arguing that the key to real learning is picking something you care passionately about and pursuing it on your own.

I couldn't agree more.

And that's what a writing course like this one is really about. When you are drawn to a story, and set out to tell it accurately and well, you're saying "this is what I most want to learn right now." Then you make it happen, just like one of the characters in "Accepted" whose goal was to blow things up with his mind.

My secret love affair with Judah Folkman

Dr. Judah Folkman, one of the world’s most creative and important cancer researchers, died in the Denver airport on January 15. I heard the news early the next morning on NPR and immediately turned to the obituary in the New York Times.

To be honest, we were together only four times in 17 years.

But that was enough.

In 1995, I met with Judah Folkman at the insistence of my boss, the publisher of the Harvard Health Letter, who thought there would be no harm in having Harvard faculty put their names on articles actually written by science journalists. I opposed this radical change in editorial practice, and the publisher and I agreed that trying out the idea on Judah would decide the matter.

No way, he said. It would be wrong to take credit for someone else’s work. So our big story about angiogenesis research, a field he pioneered, ran with the byline of the person who reported and wrote the article.

He was an honorable man.

Six years later, Judah’s work had become incredibly famous and my friend Bob Cooke published Dr. Folkman’s War, an award-winning account of how a surgeon became one of the world’s leading vascular biologists. There was a book release party for Bob at Boston Children’s Hospital, Judah’s home institution, and a large and festive crowd gathered on a wintry night to toast Bob’s accomplishment.

To everyone’s surprise, Judah took the microphone and read a biography of Bob Cooke that he had prepared for the occasion. The subject of the book lionized its author.

He was a generous man.

In 2004, we met again at a hotel near Washington’s Dulles Airport. Judah was chairing a panel evaluating proposals from young scientists competing for large awards for breast cancer research. These panels typically consist solely of faculty members from medical schools or universities.

In this case, however, Congress required that “consumers and their representatives” help decide. So the group included three breast cancer survivors, all of them powerhouse advocates in their home states, and two science writers.

Some of the academic reviewers expressed displeasure by interrupting us when we spoke, and they were especially dismissive of the advocates. Again and again, Judah stepped in.

He would not allow anyone to disrespect anyone else.

Our paths crossed again in New Orleans last November, where Judah was the keynote speaker for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and I was accompanying graduate students reporting on the meeting. We had a chance to renew old acquaintance just minutes before he took the stage.

He was expected to come to UGA this spring, his first visit ever, to give a lecture. Now that’s out of the question and so is a Nobel Prize, for which the dead aren’t eligible.

He was so alive when we saw him in New Orleans last fall, cracking jokes and showing photos of his granddaughter while describing decades of work that revolutionized treatment for macular degeneration in addition to helping thousands of cancer patients. Judah’s discoveries led to the development of drugs for macular degeneration that some ophthalmologists rate as the most significant non-surgical advance in their field. To them, he was like a god.

But that’s not right. This son of a Cleveland rabbi was not a god. More than any other great physician-researcher I have ever known, he was something better.

The Yiddish word is mensch.

Cowardly presidential candidates?

About one week after the JRMC 8350 crew returned from our reporting trip to New Orleans, Times-Picayune reporter John Pope emailed to say that the committee charged with setting up president debates had rejected New Orleans as a site. Instead, they selected Oxford, Mississippi, which doesn't even have enough hotel rooms to accommodate the candidates, their entourages and the press corps.

Today an editorial in the New York Times took the debate committee to task, scoffing at the claim that "New Orleans did not measure up" as a debate site.

Those who've been to New Orleans recently find this implausible.

We were part of a convention with more than 20,000 physician participants and another 10,000 corporate reps and reporters. No one likes creature comforts more than doctors and drug company salespeople, and they looked pretty fat and happy.

New Orleans has worked hard to re-establish itself as a venue for major events, and for better or worse presidential debates draw smaller crowds than Mardi Gras parades or football games.

My guess is that candidates and their handlers are shunning New Orleans because they are too cowardly to face painful issues that a group of Grady students confronted in early November. Courage is needed to engage with people in ruined neighborhoods, contemplate the failures of political will and human decency that created this desolation, and resolve to do what we can to change this.

Surely anyone who aspires to the presidency should be willing to plead his or her case in New Orleans.

Holding back the tears

For two days, my graduate students and I toured New Orleans most devastated neighborhoods by van, stopping to pick our way through rubble and talk to survivors and volunteers struggling to rebuild. It took eight hours to see only part of the flood zone, which in total is seven times as large as Manhattan.

JRMC8350 aims to teach graduate students the essential skills of health and medical journalism, but it also requires them to probe connections between health and wealth in every article they write. In New Orleans, this exercise felt like a dental pick touching a nerve.

The trick is not to cry if you're the professor, busy demonstrating reporter-like behavior for people who'll be your colleagues for years to come.

It was late morning on the first day when we stopped in the Lower 9th Ward, where literally thousands of working class homes -- many in the same African American families for generations -- had been shoved from their foundations and crushed when the levees broke. The rubble had been hauled off and the irrepressible growth of Joe Pye weed and goldenrod and tall grass had masked the pilings, foundation slabs and cement steps that remained. If you didn't want to think about the losses suffered here, you could convince yourself that these were vacant lots like any other.

One lot, however, demanded our attention. It was neatly mowed to the property lines and shurbs were pruned. Little imagination was needed to envision a barking dog behind the chain link fence that still stood, shushed by an owner sitting on the porch. Now there was no porch, no house. Just concrete steps and a child's whirligig, motionless.

This was a raw wound dressed by lawnmower and lopping shears. Someone lacked the resources to heal the wound and rebuild the house, but could not walk away. At least one student wept at this mute testimony to grief and persistence.

But not the professor, who had roles to model.

We wrapped up our tour the following afternoon, talking with New Orleans Times-Picayune reporters and editors who shared the newspaper's Pulitzer Prize for its storm coverage. Veteran medical and public health reporter John Pope, who arranged the visit, asked the grad students to talk about the first-person piece each planned to write. "What's your story about?" he asked.

We went around the table, and when it was time for writing coach Kimberly Davis to speak, she said "For me, the story is about the people who aren't here." And then it hit me: huge swatches of New Orleans are as silent as the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde. In Holy Cross and Lakeview and other parts of New Orleans where buildings still stand, there are streets without voices, barking dogs, TV chatter, or the ringing of phones.

The realization made tears inch down my cheeks, there in the third floor conference room at the Times-Pic. But I did not cry.

Later that afternoon, I did. I encountered a scrawny black man in a Navy watch cap on steps leading into Jackson Square, and as I brushed past he said "Can you help me? I just got out of the hospital and I need to get my medicine." He waved in front of me what looked to be a completed prescription form, white and yellow copies torn off a pad and still gummed together.

For all I know, he was panhandling with the same line long before Katrina hit. Or he might have been freshly discharged from the hospital. It was impossible to tell. But I was prepared to give the man the benefit of the doubt after all we'd seen, and so I gave him a bill that was probably larger than what he expected.

And I walked away, sat down on a bench, and bawled. We had all seen so much sadness in this proud and wounded city. And yet...and yet...we have seen people determined to stay on and endure, if not prevail.

Keep it simple

This is a melancholy week for people in my profession because former Wall Street Journal reporter Jerry Bishop, one of the greatest science writers ever, died last Friday at age 76. Tributes are mounting at http://blogs.wsj.com/health, where Jerry's colleague Ron Winslow posted an elegant obituary of his friend and mentor.

Jerry understood the value of simplicity far better than most of us. Ron describes a session more than 20 years ago, where scientists were talking about defibrillators -- implantable devices that shock a quivering heart back into normal rhythm. "Several reporters in the audience asked technical questions about the device and then Jerry raised his hand. 'When the device fires that jolt,' he asked, 'what does it feel like?'"

That is what readers really want to know, and we must remember to ask.

Visiting New Orleans

One month from now, JRMC 8350 students will be walking the streets of New Orleans and encountering the persistent effects of Katrina and Rita firsthand. We'll be visiting hospitals and clinics and interviewing people who are committed to building a new health care system for this great American city, one that functions more equitably and lightens the burden of disease that has weighted down generations.

One way to prepare for what we'll see in New Orleans and vicinity is to view Spike Lee's Peabody-winning HBO documentary, "When the Levees Broke." Vision Video in Athens has mutiple copies at all their locations, and there are also copies in the Main Library at UGA. Another resource is "Health Challenges for the People of New Orleans," a new report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. There's a link to the Kaiser website on our blog's index page.

Even people who aren't heading for New Orleans might want to see Lee's documentary and read this report.

Drought and disease

If I'd known I was going to live so long, I would have taken better care of myself.

If I'd known we were going to run out of water by Christmas, I would have taken shorter showers and never, ever rinsed dishes under running water.

Today while I was doing what passes for gardening during these dry times -- pruning, removing dead plants, and adding soil amendments that will help if I ever get to plant anything new again -- I couldn't help but think about parallels between preventive care and water conservation.

When we're healthy and the reservoirs are full, we assume it will always be so.

Frightened by a heart attack or the threat of taps run dry, we vow to do better. But when the crisis is over, do we really stop eating fries or get that leaky tap fixed?

It isn't easy to change our ways, either individually or as a nation. You can find out more about how increased used of five simple, preventive health measures would save 100,000 American lives each year by going to www.prevent.org. That's where you'll find a new report, "Preventive Care: A National Profile on Use, Disparities and Health Benefits."

As for water use, shower with a friend.

Wednesday night TV

I met Adam Rogers when he was a science journalism grad student at Boston University, earning an MA in the program where I later taught. I never had him in class but he was my intern at the Harvard Health Letter for 6 months, and he did some wonderful reporting and writing there.

Now Adam is an editor at Wired Magazine in San Francisco, but more recently he's been working on a TV spinoff called "Wired Science." The season opener is at 8 PM Wednesday on PBS. For more info, see http://www.pbs.org/kcet/wiredscience/

The teaser indicates a pretty wide range of stories, so check it out if you can.

Local sources

Scout around for yesterday's Athens Banner Herald, sift through the ads for Target and Lowe's and you'll find a slick advertising supplement called "Fall 2007 Health Resource Guide." Hang onto it! The combination of directories and display advertising will help you identify local physicians, dentists, and health services --names you'll need to put a local angle on your stories. Nice revenue for ABH, nice tool for you!

Sunday miscellany

Today's "@issue" section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution features an interview with epidemiologist Devra Davis, author of a new book called "The Secret History of the War on Cancer." She's been a lightning rod for controversy for as long as I can remember, and if this interview is any indication Davis is not surrendering this role anytime soon. Her new book apparently claims that some of the world's best-known cancer epidemiologists were essentially on the take, pocketing money from tobacco and asbestos interests while publishing studies that put more blame on genes than on these and other everyday exposures.

In her new book, Davis argues that the so-called "war on cancer" has spotlighted diagnostic tests and novel therapies while soft-pedaling big money carcinogens like tobacco. Although I think that tobacco is the single biggest modifiable risk factor for cancer, Davis once published studies shifting the blame away from tobacco and onto environmental pollutants. But hey, it's all about learning as you go.

Speaking of which, check out the website www.coveringcommunities.org Although we don't dwell on this, JRMC 8350 is a community journalism course: students must find the local angle for every story. This website provides excellent gut checks that help us determine whether we're really approaching our town with an open mind, or instead recounting a plot we framed in advance.

One final note, sparked by Red & Black's story on killer microwave popcorn: any JRMC8350 student who posts an acceptable critical analysis of a health/medical story in R&B or the Athens Banner Herald picks up 5 extra pounts for the term. This analysis must use a checklist as rigorous as the one deployed by www.healthnewsreview.org, and if the article is about a clinical trial using theirs is a fine idea.

Coach is in your corner

Writing Coach Kimberly Davis has covered cops and courts for a daily newspaper and profiled Kanye West and Ludacris for Ebony. She has written about health, religion, race and higher education, and dozens of other topics for national and regional magazines.

Kimberly graduated from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism in 1996 and came to Grady College in 2006 with a decade of professional writing and editing experience. She has taught and done research while pursuing her MA, and without Kimberly Grady College probably would not have an exciting partnership with New America Media, the nation’s largest network of ethnic news organizations.

Here’s the best part: Kimberly is your writing coach. Her job this semester is to help you brainstorm story ideas, plan reporting strategies, coordinate with photographers, and revise your copy. She has regular office hours from 9-12 on Mondays and is also available by appointment. Whatever your dilemma, she can help you think it through.

How good is she? Let’s put it this way: she edits everything I write, and my work is better for it.

Sunday papers and upcoming guests

The front page of today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution showcases the latest in a series of investigative pieces about mentally ill Georgians dying from lack of proper care. If anyone has forgotten that jails and prisons have become society's de facto mental health faciltiies, this is a vivid reminder. Reporter Andy Miller, co-author of the series, will guest lecture in JRMC 8350 on October 3.

The lead story in today's "Week in Review" section of the New York Times is called "Unveiling Health Care 2.0, Again." You'll want to read this -- and stay alert for ongoing coverage of health care plans put forth by presidential hopefuls -- so you'll be ready for November 28. That's the penultimate class meeting, when you get to grill four College of Public Health students about health care platforms of various candidates.

This coming Wednesday you'll have a chance to try out your long feature ideas twice in the same class meeting. Award-winning online editor Jim Alred will meet with us for the first half of class, and after the break we'll be joined by editors from newspapers and magazines in greater ATH. Be prepared to pitch!

Inspiration for the next steps

Now that all you 8350 students have met your first deadline, it's time to gear up for your multimedia adventure. If you haven't already done so, I hope you'll make contact with your photojournalism partners over the weekend. It's important that you work as a team to explore topics and find the story that will grow into your long feature, photographs, and audio-slide production.

To help you get started, check out the links at http://journalist.org/awards/archives/000773.php
These are finalists for the 2007 Online Journalism Awards and there's a lots of great stuff here. Scroll down and you'll find some excellent pieces done by students. "The Science of Sex," for example, is built from man (and woman) on the street interviews conducted in a park. The sound is natural, the people are real, this is proves that human interest does not have to be high-tech.

More audio-slide presentations recommended by photo and multimedia guru Mark Johnson:

http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/news/finalSalute/ (We watched part of this in class.)


http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/photography/2006/cardstacker/ (Just for fun.)

Happy hunting!

More jolt than Jittery Joe's

Admit it, you got quite an adrenaline rush when Dr. Dan Colley feigned sudden death while describing the worst consequences of Chagas disease. I know I did! Slides for his excellent presentation, "What reporters need to know about covering infectious disease," will soon be linked to the syllabus posted on the KnightHealth teaching page.

While you were busy launching your health/medical blogs over Labor Day weekend, I was catching up with back issues of The New Yorker. In the August 13 issue, Hot Zone author Richard Preston writes a gripping piece about Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, a genetic disorder that drives affected boys to bite off the tips of their own fingers (among other things). Check it out.

Everyone did well launching the blogs and I'm eager to see how these conversations develop during the coming months.

Week two in JRMC 8350

We got off to a great start last week with the talk by Dr. Claude Burnett, health director for Northeast Georgia. You can review his powerpoint slides here.

Although Dr. Burnett's lead topic was teen pregnancy, he gave a statistical overview of many health department programs and cautioned that falling revenues are making these difficult to sustain. There are dozens of story ideas embedded in this presentation.

Kimberly emailed you the readings for Wednesday, and when we meet we'll be joined by a new class member. Some of you already know Tabitha Lovell, who has a background in agricultural education and is now concentrating in PR as a Grady MA student.

Plans for our November 10-14 trip to New Orleans are moving ahead. You need to fill out some advance paperwork with Anettra Mapp, so please contact her: amapp@uga.edu 706-542-8506

Over the weekend I read Terry McDermott's four-part LA Times series about neuroscientist Gary Lynch's quest to understand the physical correlates of memory. McDermott had me firmly in his narrative grip, despite including lots of complex science, until the protagonist of the story developed a mysterious neurologic ailment. This wasn't part of the story McDermott set out to write and it seemed to throw him for a loop. You're not required to read this series for the course, but if you're interested in narrative journalism you may want to check it out.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your ride-alongs with the ACC police and about your ideas for the first news story.
--Pat

Welcome to health/med journalism!

Dear All,
I'm looking forward to seeing you in class next Wednesday morning, and before then I'll distribute the syllabus. Even without that weighty document you need to get started:

1) Please purchase a copy of News & Numbers (second edition), by Victor Cohn and Lewis Cope. This paperback is available at the UGA bookstore.
2) Read the journal article that writing coach Kimberly Davis sends you as a PDF. This prepares you for the August 22 guest lecture by Dr. Claude Burnett, health director for NE Georgia. Check the syllabus for additional readings.
3) Set up your individual "ride-along" with the Athens-Clarke County Police. This is a one-time deal, it's up to you to arrange, and you should be prepared to talk about it during class on August 29. Try and go at night. Pick up required forms from Anettra Mapp (room 252, amapp@uga.edu, 542-8506) or Kimberly (room 256, kddavis@uga.edu, 542-8390).

Don't hesitate to contact Kimberly or me with questions.
--Knight Chair Patricia Thomas, who really does prefer to be called Pat.