Free workshop on health coverage in Louisville Sept. 21; free lodging available to registrants who need to come the night before

Journalists covering health issues in Kentucky, from drug abuse to health reform, have a chance to immerse themselves in the subject at a free one-day workshop in Louisville on Sept. 21.
The workshop is sponsored by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which is also offering free hotel lodging to registrants whose distance from Louisville would make it inconvenient for them to get there by 9 a.m. EDT, when the workshop will begin.
The workshop is designed to help journalists cover health in
ways that your readers, viewers and listeners will appreciate. It will feature
a collection of America’s and Kentucky’s top health experts and health
journalists. The program should yield terrific stories at the same time it
helps you see how to make health coverage a more central part of what your
newsroom does every day. The speakers will be:
  • Dr.
    Nora Volkow
    , head of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, to talk about
    the opiate epidemic nationwide, why it’s even worse in Kentucky, and specific
    stories you could and should be doing but probably aren’t.
  • Bill
    Wagner
    , head of Louisville’s Family Health Centers, to discuss the state of
    health reform in Kentucky and obstacles that remain.
  • A
    patient
    of Wagner’s clinic who is newly insured, to talk about what works
    with the reforms and what needs further reform.
  • Abby
    Goodnough
    , national health reporter for The New York Times, to talk about
    her award-winning series on health reform that focused on Kentucky and lessons
    it holds for you.
  • Laura
    Ungar
    , health reporter for USA Today and The Courier-Journal, to talk about
    what stories she’d do based on that day’s session, and how to sell editors on
    health stories and a health beat.
  • Mary
    Meehan
    , health reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader who just began a Nieman
    fellowship at Harvard University, will talk about how to bring new life to the medical
    beat at media outlets that increasingly are stretched thin.
  • Al
    Cross
    , director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues,
    to discuss where the reform law works, where it needs fixing, and what to ask
    gubernatorial candidates in the upcoming election.
  • Larry
    Tye
    , author and former reporter at The C-J and The Boston Globe,
    will moderate the sessions to keep the focus on making these issues resonate
    with your readers and listeners. He runs a Boston-based health reporting
    fellowship that Mary and Laura did, and where Nora and Abby were speakers.
“Larry Tye assembled what we think is a first-rate line-up of health officials and medical
journalists to help you think about how to make health stories resonate with
your editors and your readers,” Cross said. “If you agree, sign up now because there’s
limited space and a growing list of registrants. Our speakers are the stars,
but you will be the focus of the day’s program.”

Register for the free workshop and lodging at www.regonline.com/healthcoverageworkshop. Questions can be directed to Angela Koch at akoch@healthy-ky.org.

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