The New England Center for Investigative Reporting took home first prize in the competitive health-care category from the Society of American Business Writers and Editors, the Society announced at their spring conference in Chicago on April 25.
SABEW honored the work of reporter Beth Daley and interns Shan Wang and Samantha Constanzo in laying bare a new world of poorly regulated diagnostic tests that have misled patients and confused even doctors.
Here is what the judges had to say about NECIR's "Oversold and misunderstood":
This story shakes you to the core — you depend on tests to assure you that your health is good — but who's watching to make sure? The results are startling and this story no doubt will save lives.
A captivated audience gasped in unison as they watched NECIR's video about Stacie Chapman, who decided to terminate her pregnancy after a new type of prenatal screen determined her baby had Edwards Syndrome, a genetic disorder associated with severe birth defects. (Chapman later took a separate confirmatory test, which showed her fetus to be healthy, and ultimately did not terminate her pregnancy.)
You can read the full story here.
The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism also awarded Daley with a $15,000 McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism to look more closely at the genetic testing industry.