Athens, GA (May 16, 2007) – New strategies for covering local hospitals’ quality of care and financial soundness were among the topics spotlighted during the 2007 Gnat Line News Briefing: Real Health and Medical News for Working Reporters.

Two nationally-known experts also showed participants how to mine story ideas from tax documents and online databases during the April 12-13 event. Pulitzer-prize winner Charles Ornstein from the Los Angeles Times and Karl Stark, foreign and national editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer, addressed reporters during the opening session of this annual event.

The second annual Gnat Line News Briefing was a joint effort of Knight Health programs at the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Association of Healthcare Journalists (AHCJ) and Morehouse School of Medicine. The briefing was coordinated by Patricia Thomas, Grady’s Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism.

Participants included print and broadcast reporters from six states, journalism graduate students from UGA and the University of Alabama, and faculty and administrators from Grady, Morehouse and the AHCJ.

“Thanks to the leads I gathered during the Gnat Line News Briefing, I’m developing a story no one else in my market has sniffed out yet,” said Taunya English, freelance reporter with WYPR 88.1 in Baltimore. “The workshops were relaxed and informal, but our Grady hosts understood that each of us would need concrete story ideas to wow our editors back in the newsroom.”

Stephen Warren, chair of the genetics department at Emory University, delivered the keynote address on the evening of April 12. He told about finding the gene for Fragile X syndrome, the most common cause of mental retardation in boys, 16 years ago. Today, his team is working on a drug that might protect the cognitive abilities of affected boys.

The following day, three Morehouse School of Medicine faculty members presented new findings about health problems that disproportionately affect poor, rural or black populations. Byron Ford, director of Morehouse’s Center for Neuroprotection, Neurorepair and Stroke, focused on a possible new stroke treatment that could be a boon to rural patients who often aren’t helped by current drugs because they can’t get to a hospital soon enough.

Rhonda Conerly-Holliday, research assistant professor of community health and preventive medicine, documented rampant HIV and other infectious diseases, as well as substance abuse problems, among incarcerated men and male juvenile offenders – most of whom will soon return to their home communities. She sees signs that pre- and post-release interventions can ease the transition to the outside world and protect public health.

Circadian biologist Alec Davidson revealed new connections between disturbances in circadian rhythm — such as those caused by rotating shift work or long-distance travel — and health risks such as cancer.

For the second consecutive year, the Gnat Line event was held at Lake Blackshear Resort near Cordele — not the usual location for a conference featuring nationally known scientists and journalists.

“Reporters who live and work below the Gnat Line or in other rural areas should not have to battle Atlanta traffic to meet world-class scientists and learn from the best journalists in the business,” said Knight Chair Pat Thomas. “Our goal is to deliver knowledge to news organizations on their home turf.”

This article was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 11:08 am and is filed under News.