Interested in a career in journalism?

What do you know about journalism? Medical journalism can be a very enjoyable career and it's very different from traditional journalism. To learn more, you can join the Association of Health Care Journalists.

There is also an upcoming Evisors webinar on Aug 6 at 12 pm ET about "Careers in Journalism" and it might be worth exploring. You can learn more about journalism and how to break into the field.

Graduate Program in Science Journalism at Boston University

Want to be a science journalist? Boston University offers Graduate Program in Science Journalism. This program is dedicated to improving the understanding of science, medicine and technology worldwide.


A career in science and medical journalism offers a rewarding opportunity to explore and investigate any number of critical contemporary concerns—from medical and environmental policy to culture clashes and matters of social justice. BU’s one-year Master’s in Science Journalism program is run by internationally known journalists, every one an active and highly regarded expert in the field.

Learn more about this program here.

Enhance Your Marketing Career - Earn a MS in Health Communication

Place no limits on your career in the health care industry. With a Boston University Master of Science in Health Communication online degree, you will:

• Learn to incorporate interactive tools such as social media and e-mail marketing to communicate important health care messages.
• Benefit from the interaction you’ll experience with your fellow students from a diverse mix of industry backgrounds, including: marketing, health care, public relations, journalism, sales, non-profit fundraising, education, and communications.
• Deepen your abilities to influence and communicate health issues at all organizational levels to become an established leader in the health communication profession.

Get started now. The Master of Science in Health Communication at Boston University is the first program of its kind to be offered entirely online, and is shorter than most – complete it in as little as 18 months.

Health Journalism 2011 (Association of Health Care Journalists)

Health Journalism 2011
Association of Health Care Journalists
04/14/11 - 04/17/11
Philadelphia, PA

Hundreds of journalists will meet in Philadelphia's historic district to attend dozens of panels, join workshops, take field trips and report on newsmaker briefings focused on the various aspects of covering health, medical research, public health, policy issues, consumer health and the business of health care.

Along with panel sessions and workshops, special events will include our popular Freelance PitchFest, the 2010 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism luncheon, exhibitor hall prize drawings and a Welcome to Philadelphia reception.

Among the dozens of expert speakers and instructors joining us this year:

• Brian Deer, the British reporter who exposed the weaknesses in a study that led parents all over the world to withhold vaccines from their children
• Walt Bogdanich, investigative editor for The New York Times and former 60 Minutes producer.
• David Blumenthal, national coordinator for health information technology, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing

MIT offers a one-year master's degree program in science writing. What is science writing? Here's a snippet from the MIT website:

Science writing means writing about science and technology for general readers. It appears in ordinary newsstand magazines and newspapers, in popular books, on the walls of museums, on television or radio programs. It grapples with genes, fractals, synapses, and quarks, but always with grace and style. Its practitioners worry as much about how to tell the story of science as the science itself—and yet, in maddening paradox, as much about the science as its telling. Science writing tackles big ideas, important issues. It's ambitious, creative, hard to do—harder yet to do well.

Among the alumni, some have written books, others have published in magazines and newspapers, several of them have science blogs, and others are working as full-time science writers.

Recently, I've received many questions related to careers in medical writing and medical communications. If you enjoy being creative and you like to write, then you might really enjoy the independence and autonomy you can experience as a medical writer. Several other universities offer graduate degree courses in science writing, biomedical writing, medical journalism, etc. For instance, the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP) offers a Master of Science in Biomedical Writing and also offers Certificates in Medical Writing.  Boston University offers a Master of Science Degree in Science and Medical Journalism. The University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill also offers a Master's Program in Medical & Science Journalism.

To learn more about the MIT Graduate Program in Science Writing, click here.

Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ)

The Association of Health Care Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing public understanding of health care issues. Its mission is to improve the quality, accuracy and visibility of health care reporting, writing and editing. There are more than 1,000 members of AHCJ.

This week, the AHCJ is having its annual conference: Health Journalism 2010
04/22/10 - 04/25/10
Chicago, IL

Learn more about the Association of Health Care Journalists here: http://www.healthjournalism.org

Mayo medical students can pursue journalism

It was great to see Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN at HIMSS10. When people think about medical journalism, they probably think about Sanjay. Well, if you'd like to pursue such a career path, here's something to consider:

According to several recent stories circulating on the Internet, Mayo Medical School is working with the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication to start a journalism degree program for its medical students. Mayo Medical School students from Rochester, Minnesota, will come to ASU after their second year of medical school to fulfill a dual master’s degree. They will be completing a mass communications degree.

The degree program at Cronkite is just one of five dual degree programs that ASU offers Mayo medical students. Other degree programs with ASU are medical-law degrees, medical-bio engineering and medical-MBA at W. P. Carey School of Business and medical-bio informatics.

Read more about this at the Stanford SCOPE blog. Or, you can also read the story on statepress.com.

Thanks to Paula from ReachMD for pointing me to this story.

SHERP Program at NYU

If you're interested in medical journalism, you should take a look at the SHERP program at NYU. New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) is one of the oldest and most prestigious science journalism training programs in the country. The program was known as 'SERP' until 2006, when the 'H' was added to acknowledge the program's focus on health reporting. Perhaps it should have been an "M" for Medical reporting, but then SMERP just doesn't have the right ring to it. Students completing the 16-month program receive a Master of Arts in Journalism and an Advanced Certificate in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting.

Want more information? Click here.