This year saw upheaval in all corners of health, science, and biotech. While our staff was covering all of the twists and turns, they were also looking with admiration at stellar work from other journalists.<\/p>\n
Below is our annual list of stories that STAT staffers loved, and wish that they had written. (Also check out the jealousy list from Bloomberg Businessweek<\/a>, which had the idea first.)<\/p>\n The NEW YORKER<\/p>\n By Rachel Aviv<\/p>\n This story of a woman whose psychosis began to change after she received treatment for lymphoma is Rachel Aviv at her best. It makes you question what you thought you knew about being a body, having a self, and the relationship between the two.\u00a0\u2014 Eric Boodman<\/a>, general assignment reporter<\/p>\n The Washington Post<\/p>\n By Michael Lewis<\/p>\n I feel a bit foolish citing a Michael Lewis article as one I wish I\u2019d written. Lewis is a giant of long-form journalism. I\u2019m a bread-and-butter reporter who could no more write a piece of this scope and complexity than I could write one in Mandarin or Swahili. But this is a wonderful and moving story about something that went right for a very sick little girl and her family, thanks to the vision and dedication of an FDA employee, Heather Stone. Couldn\u2019t have produced it; loved reading it. \u2014\u00a0Helen Branswell<\/a>, infectious disease correspondent<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/p>\n By Jessica Steier, Graphics by Sara Chodosh and Taylor Maggiacomo<\/p>\n We\u2019ve published a number of stories this year about how health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is undermining Americans\u2019 confidence in vaccines. Nowhere is that more evident than in Kennedy\u2019s rhetoric around autism, which he argues is partly caused by vaccines. He routinely cites studies to corroborate his claims, even though there is a vast body of scientific evidence to the contrary. It can be dizzying to understand the flaws in the studies Kennedy cites, but this Jessica Steier story detangles this knot with ease. Steier\u2019s clear writing and stupendous graphics from Sara Chodosh and Taylor Maggiacomo illuminate how vaccine critics and Kennedy allies David and Mark Geier have relied on a web of shoddy science \u2014 and gives readers tools for how to not fall for the anti-vaccine playbook. \u2014 O. Rose Broderick<\/a>, disability in health care reporting fellow<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/p>\n By Katie Engelhart<\/p>\n This is certainly a divisive read, depending on your views on assisted suicide, but also an incredibly powerful piece on what this actually looks like for nonterminal patients. Interspersed with deep reporting on the history and current arguments surrounding assisted suicide is an emotional, empathetic account of one woman\u2019s journey to have her case considered. By the end of the story, I found myself questioning and conflicted about the use of assisted suicide, which I believe was the author\u2019s intention after such an intimate look inside. \u2014 Chelsea Cirruzzo<\/a>, Washington correspondent<\/p>\n Word in Black\u00a0<\/p>\n By Anissa Durham<\/p>\n Some of my favorite stories take something that feels rote \u2014 like our nation\u2019s flawed but important organ transplant system \u2014 and examine it in fresh detail. Anissa Durham\u2019s fantastic series about Black Americans\u2019 struggles under the transplant regime does exactly that. Her reporting lays bare problems that keep many Black people from getting transplants, like outdated, race-based screening tools. But Durham goes deeper, delving into sticky areas like the conspiracy theories that make Black people distrust the system, and how negative health care experiences are keeping potential donors from checking that box at the DMV. \u201cOn Borrowed Time\u201d is also practical, with explanatory guides and videos about how the transplant process works, interviews with patients who received organs, and more. Public service journalism at its finest. \u2014 Isabella Cueto<\/a>, chronic disease reporter<\/p>\n Bloomberg<\/p>\n By Zeke Faux and Zachary R. Mider<\/p>\n The most compelling stories are about the outliers \u2014 the people, places, and things that are so outside of what we expect or see in our own lives. This wild feature captures perhaps the biggest outliers you could imagine within the world of health insurance brokerages. It takes place in Florida (of course), has a wild cast of characters (including someone who was a former heroin dealer and pimp), and keeps you reading through extremely compelling details (like the armed guards who provided security for one of the so-called sales rooms after a fired employee threatened to shoot everyone). And the central product of the story \u2014 Obamacare plans that came with extra subsidies that are about to expire \u2014 also happens to be one of the biggest health policy stories of the year. \u2014 Bob Herman<\/a>, business of health care reporter<\/p>\n Associated Press<\/p>\n By Taiwo Adebayo<\/p>\n A lot of very good reporting has built a compelling body of evidence that kids are dying because of the deep and sudden U.S. cuts to international aid, despite whatever Trump administration officials try to assert. Consider this Associated Press story, from Dikwa, Nigeria, representative of the work done on the subject. The piece details how the aid cuts led Mercy Corps to end a program that treated acute malnutrition in the region, and how a child who had been enrolled in the program then died. Sometimes we put stories on this list that we wish we had done, but this is more of a recognition of all the work reporters have done documenting the impact of the U.S. decision, stories that I\u2019m sure no reporter wishes they had to do. \u2014 Andrew Joseph<\/a>, Europe correspondent<\/p>\n NBC News<\/p>\n By Brandy Zadrozny<\/p>\n Debunking health misinformation spread by politicians is important. But it\u2019s equally, or perhaps even more, important to document the real-world impact of that misinformation. Zadrozny does a masterful job of this in this dispatch from West Texas, where she highlights how propaganda spread by anti-vaccine activists sowed distrust in the measles vaccine, and has led to small children getting very sick. \u2014 Lizzy Lawrence<\/a>, FDA reporter<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/p>\n By Sarah Kliff<\/p>\n Having started and stopped reporting on the role of continuous fetal monitoring in the C-section epidemic more times than I care to count, I was so jealous the first time I saw the headline of Sarah Kliff\u2019s story I couldn\u2019t even get myself to read it. First I tried scrolling through hoping it\u2019d be a quick, incremental story: After all, I know firsthand this is a hard subject to report on. Or maybe a study report? No luck on either count. So then I looked more closely, hoping for holes, glaring omissions. Nope. Surely she didn\u2019t go into the story of the monitor\u2019s invention, with its controversies? Or the disturbing feedback loop of monitoring and lawsuits? You guessed it, she covers both. Not only that, but this feature goes beyond shedding light on an important, overlooked issue and follows its reverberations into the future, looking at how AI is now being used in combination with continuous fetal monitoring, and even investigating the lack of evidence behind its promoted outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sigh, this story is just excellent. Other people\u2019s brilliance really is the worst. \u2014 Annalisa Merelli<\/a>, contributing writer<\/p>\n ProPublica<\/p>\n By Brandon Roberts, Annie Waldman, and Pratheek Rebala, Illustrations by Sam Green for ProPublica<\/p>\n When the Trump administration announced massive cuts to federal health agencies earlier this year, it was done with almost no input from the agencies themselves, sparking widespread confusion and chaos. As a single reporter, it was extremely challenging to get a sense of the true scope of changes to the federal health workforce. Then ProPublica\u2019s data team came to the rescue. By pulling public information from the HHS employee directory, ProPublica was able to provide a deep look at the staggering losses \u2014 in total more than 20,500 workers \u2014 packaged in striking data visualizations that revealed the cuts in unprecedented detail. An impressive feat and important public service. \u2014 Megan Molteni<\/a>, science writer<\/p>\n The Washington Post<\/p>\n By Carolyn Y. Johnson and Joel Achenbach<\/p>\n A story unpacking five words tucked into the agreement researchers sign when receiving federal funding feels relatively in the weeds, particularly when there has been no shortage of attention drawn to grant terminations this year. But this piece from Carolyn Y. Johnson and Joel Achenbach about the first Trump administration sneaking in a clause regarding terminating grants that \u201cno longer effectuate agency priorities\u201d was a fascinating look at the backstory to the administration\u2019s playbook when it came out in March, and has only proved itself as more prescient by the day. Many researchers cite those exact words as insulting or wrong when asked about their own terminations. At a moment when the NIH is ensuring its portfolio is more neatly aligned with the administration\u2019s priorities, this piece feels more relevant than ever \u2014\u00a0even nine months later. \u2014 Anil Oza<\/a>, general assignment reporter<\/p>\n The New Yorker<\/p>\n By Rachel Monroe<\/p>\n Philadelphia\u2019s M\u00fctter Museum is a divisive space dedicated to medical history. Aficionados of the weird and gothic flock to gaze at the preserved corpse of a woman known as the \u201cSoap Lady\u201d and a collection of 139 human skulls, while some question the ethics of displaying human remains without consent or sufficient context about the roles that racism and ableism often play in shaping cultural reactions to people\u2019s bodies. Rachel Monroe\u2019s terrific New Yorker story digs into questions about what we owe to the dead with nuance and care, while also unpacking the tumult at the museum and the colorful characters who work there when a new executive director with a desire to reform the museum\u2019s oddball reputation comes on board. I\u2019m still thinking about it many months later. \u2014 Sarah Todd<\/a>, commercial determinants of health reporter<\/p>\n The Wall Street Journal<\/p>\n By Christopher Weaver, Anna Wilde Mathews, and Tom McGinty<\/p>\n The lack of physicians who take Medicaid is a well-known problem. The WSJ did a great job using some really fascinating and novel data analysis methods to quantify the scope of the issue. \u2014 Zach Tracer<\/a>, senior editor, business and policy<\/p>\n Acquired<\/p>\n By Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal <\/p>\n Being a writer, I could never produce a four-hour-long podcast, but the Acquired podcast guys made me wish I could. Their reporting on notoriously-private-yet-ubiquitous electronic health record system company Epic Systems is so incredibly deep. Even people who have been familiar with Epic for decades were astounded at the amount of access they got to founder Judy Faulkner and the ways that the company thinks and operates. And so was I. Got a long drive? Pop on this podcast (after listening to the latest Read Out Loud and First Opinion podcasts, of course.) \u2014 Brittany Trang<\/a>, health tech reporter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year saw upheaval in all corners of health, science, and biotech. 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