If you feel like reading some health stories that aren't about what's happening in Washington, look no further than the winners of this year's Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. Sponsored by the Association of Health Care Journalists, the awards, which were announced today, "recognize the best health reporting in nine categories, covering print, broadcast and online media."
First place in the metro newspaper/wire/web category was a Chicago Tribune series on controversial autism treatments, about which the judges wrote:
This powerful series combines first rate medical writing and rigorous investigative reporting to expose doctors who perform what the authors rightly call "uncontrolled experiments on vulnerable children" with autism. Writing with the authority that comes from total command of the material, [Trine] Tsouderos and [Patricia] Callahan bring new clarity to a notoriously murky subject - autism treatments. They document a horrifying brand of bad science perpetrated by bad doctors on desperate families, but they do it without a hint of hyperbole or sensationalism. Their straightforward, professional tone lets the facts tell the story. The result is an important - and devastating - piece.
Via Covering Health
