NECIR reporter Beth Daley’s examination into examinations of unregulated medical tests – for everything from cancer to Lyme disease to prenatal genetic defects – and how they are establishing a foothold in the medical system is being honored by two prestigious journalism organizations.
The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism recently awarded Daley a $15,000 McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism. And the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) announced March 2 that she is a finalist in its 2014 Best in Business competition, which recognizes outstanding business stories.
The McGraw funding will support Daley in her ongoing examination of the increasing use of genetic diagnostic tests, their costs and the medical industry’s role in promoting them. Her examination of laboratory-developed tests has, so far, helped spur a Congressional call for the FDA to regulate the tests, and it sparked a warning from a national society of high-risk obstetricians to doctors and patients not to place too much faith in the accuracy of positive prenatal blood test results because they have caused some women to inadvertently abort healthy fetuses. The story was picked up by more than 75 news outlets, from Slate to NBC News and multiple other outlets.
"Beth's outstanding work is having an important impact in an area that needs to be monitored. These are stories that reflect NECIR's core mission to hold the powerful accountable," said Joe Bergantino, NECIR executive director and co-founder
The McGraw Fellowships are an initiative of the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Center for Business Journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and were created in 2014 to support ambitious coverage of critical issues related to the U.S. economy and business. The fellowships – awarded twice a year — enable accomplished journalists to do the deep reporting needed to produce a distinguished investigative or enterprise business story.
Roughly 80 journalists from more than a dozen countries applied for this round of fellowships in December. The winners were chosen following interviews and a review of detailed proposals, work samples and references.