Health reporting starts with the data

What does a health reporter cover?

A health reporter covers disease, medical research, public health agencies, hospitals and insurers, drug and device regulation, and the policy fights over who pays for care. The work turns on reading studies and public health data correctly.

Start with the agency or study that produced the number. Press releases and consumer health sites are useful for background, but they are not the record.

Start here

Federal agencies and data

Official sources for rates, trends and regulatory actions. Record the dataset name and the date you pulled it.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Health topics A to Z, outbreak pages and links into CDC surveillance systems.
• CDC WONDER: Build custom tables from CDC public health datasets and cite the query.
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Approvals, recalls, warning letters and safety alerts for drugs, devices and food.
• CDC Abortion Surveillance: Annual CDC counts of legal induced abortions reported by state health agencies. Not every state reports, so check which areas a year covers.
• NIH News Releases: Announcements from NIH institutes on funded research and policy.
• National Library of Medicine: Home of PubMed, MedlinePlus and other NLM databases.
• NLM Email Lists: Subscribe to National Library of Medicine update lists for new data and resources.
• NIH Library: Research library services and guides from the National Institutes of Health.
• ChildStats.gov: Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Indicators on child health, family and well-being.
• MyHealthfinder: Federal preventive health recommendations for screenings and vaccines from health.gov.

Research and data archives

Where to check the study itself, its data and the institution behind it.

• PubMed: Biomedical citations and abstracts. Check publication type, sample size and funding disclosures.
• ICPSR: University of Michigan social science data archive, including health survey data.
• Add Health: National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health at UNC. Documentation and data access.
• Visible Human Project: NLM anatomical image datasets of the male and female body.
• Health Effects Institute: Research on the health effects of air pollution and motor vehicle emissions.
• Scripps Research: Biomedical research institute. Newsroom and researcher pages for expert sourcing.
• NobelPrize.org: Official record of laureates, including physiology or medicine, with lectures and citations.

Global health

• Pan American Health Organization: WHO regional office for the Americas. Country data, publications and health alerts.

Quality, accreditation and professional bodies

Useful for checking whether a facility or plan meets a standard. These groups set or sell standards, so note who funds them.

• NCQA: National Committee for Quality Assurance. Health plan accreditation and HEDIS quality measures.
• AAAHC: Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care. Standards for outpatient and surgical centers.
• American Medical Association (Trade group): Physician organization. Policy positions, news and the JAMA Network journals.

Advocacy and consumer groups

These organizations take positions. Quote them as interested parties and check their numbers against primary data.

• Families USA (Advocacy): Health care consumer advocacy focused on affordability and access.
• Mental Health America (Advocacy): Mental health advocacy and screening resources. Formerly the National Mental Health Association.
• American Association of People with Disabilities (Advocacy): Cross-disability advocacy on political and economic power for people with disabilities.
• Planned Parenthood (Advocacy): Sexual and reproductive health provider and advocacy organization.
• Consumer Reports (Advocacy): Product testing and consumer advocacy, including health products. Parts of the site require a subscription.
• National Network for Immunization Information: Vaccine information for health professionals, parents and reporters. Check the last-updated date on each page.

Consumer health information

Good for plain-language background. Do not cite these as the source of a medical claim.

• MedlinePlus: Plain-language health information from the National Library of Medicine. The most reliable place to start for background.
• WebMD: Commercial consumer health publisher covering conditions, drugs and symptoms.
• Nemours KidsHealth: Physician-reviewed children's health information from Nemours.
• Cincinnati Children's: Pediatric hospital with a newsroom and specialist experts on child health.

Food and nutrition

• The Food Timeline: Food history reference and research service with sourced entries.
• FoodReference.com: Food trivia, history and festival listings. Verify facts before publication.
• International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association: Professional group for food and travel writers. Awards and member directory.

For health reporters

• Association of Health Care Journalists: Training, tip sheets and conferences for reporters who cover health and health policy.

Reporting checks for this beat

• Is the finding from a peer-reviewed study, a preprint, a conference abstract or a press release?
• Was the study in people, animals or cells? How many participants, and for how long?
• Are you reporting relative risk or absolute risk? Give readers the absolute numbers.
• Who funded the research, and do the authors disclose conflicts of interest?
• Does the agency data you cite have a date, a definition and a known reporting lag?
• If an advocacy group supplied the number, can you trace it to a primary source?

Links were checked in September 2026 for a live page from the same organization. Advocacy groups, trade groups and party sites are labeled and should be treated as interested parties. Verify ownership, date and context before publication.