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William Heisel
Contributing Editor
I have reported on health for most of my career. My work as an investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register exposed problems with the fertility industry, the trade in human body parts and the use of illegal drugs in sports. I helped create a first-of-its-kind report card judging hospitals on a wide array of measures for a story that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. I was one of the lead reporters on a series of stories about lead in candy, a series that also was a finalist for the Pulitzer. For the University of Washington, I work as the Director of Global Services for IHME Client Services. For Reporting On Health, I write about investigative health reporting and occasionally break news on my blog, Antidote. I also was the project editor on the Just One Breath series. You can follow me on Twitter @wheisel.
Articles
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Massachusetts started sending email warning alerts to drug prescribers in 2013. But while some measures of drug abuse dropped in the following years, it’s hard to give credit to the alerts.
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Banks tend to be very good at alerting you to potential credit card fraud. Can drug tracking programs do as good a job at flagging risky prescription scenarios?
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After their daughter ended up with Tay-Sachs disease due to a lack of genetic screening, two fathers started pushing for change. They ended up creating the world’s largest funding organization for Tay-Sachs research.
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Doctors are famously busy. Would having their staff run checks of patients’ prescription histories instead make drug-tracking databases more effective?
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![[Photo by frankieleon via Flickr.]](https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_list_thumbnail/public/title_images/unnamed_30.jpg?itok=Pr_7S64C)
How do we begin to solve the prescription drug crisis ravaging communities across the country? A recent report points the way to promising solutions, including some that should've been implemented years ago.
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Parents love to make jokes about teenagers and their fitfully growing brains. But emerging researching supplies the science needed to understand the changes. In one key way, their brains are shrinking.
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Brain researchers have found a surprising commonality in how genes are expressed in the brain: There are just 32 different patterns. The finding opens up new horizons for treatments.
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![[Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty Images]](https://centerforhealthjournalism.org/sites/default/files/styles/teaser_list_thumbnail/public/title_images/unnamed_18.jpg?itok=J7snTFcR "[Photo: Matt Cardy/Getty Images]")
When it comes to addressing disorders of the brain, the medical toolkit is weak. But new mapping projects underway could gradually change our ability to treat many common brain disorders.
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The U.S. has moved decisively toward fluoridation in water, which shows that it’s possible to move out of an area of doubt and confusion and into an era where good science is accepted and basic public health measures are taken.
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Clinton referred to some Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” and quickly alienated a large swathe of voters. Are journalists making a similar mistake with those who have doubts about the safety or efficacy of vaccines?