The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "medical experts" ...
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Medicating the Military
The stories looked at the nature and scope of the use of prescription drugs in the military community, with a focus on psychiatric medications and painkillers. The reporting found that use of psychiatric medications has risen dramatically in the past several years and some doctors suggest it may be a factor in the military's suicide epidemic of recent years. Reporters found that many psychiatric drugs - including powerful anti-convulsants and anti-psychotic medications - were being used "off label", or in ways not formally approved by the FDA. Reporters found that many troops were taking up to 10 medications at a time in so-called drug cocktails that experts say are untested and unproven in these combinations. Reporters also found that deaths caused by accidental drug overdoses had tripled during the past several years and that the Army's specialty care units were quietly conducting internal investigations and making significant changes to hospital protocols to reduce risk of accidental deaths. Finally, they found that psychiatric drug usage was also up significantly among military children.
Tags: Military; Army; Veteran; Health; Wellness; Medicine; Drugs; Pain killers; Psychiatric Medication; Mental Health; Suicide; Depression; Military Children; Hospital; Prescription
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Do It Yourself Plastic Surgery
Prescription strength chemicals and other procedures should not be done at home without a doctor. A number of websites are selling such products at a discount rate and many people are buying them and facing devastating consequences. These products are unapproved and experts say using these can result in “blindness, paralysis, or death”.
Tags: Botox; syringes; prescriptions; drugs; money; medications; medicine; Federal Drug Administration (FDA); skin
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The Mysterious Death of Janie Ward
This hour-long report is a result of a five-year investigation into the death of a 16-year-old girl 20 years ago in a small town in the Ozarks. It's about two daughters -- one wealthy and popular (a cheerleader and beauty queen); the other poor and self-conscious. It's about two fathers -- one a powerful judge who allegedly shielded his daughter from the law he's sworn to uphold; the other a bail bondsman who is trying to avenge his daughter's death. And it's about one family's fight for justice against what they believe is a corrupt judicial system that closed ranks around the powerful judge to cover-up a murder. When 16-year-old Jamie Ward fell off a 9-inch porch in the woods near Marshall, Ark., on September 9, 1989, her parents refused to blieve that the fall had killed their healthy teenager. Instead, they began to suspect to suspect she was murdered by the judge's daughter. After years of demanding an investigation into her death, an independent medical examiner associated with Parents for Murdered Children exhumed Janie's body a second time for an extremely rare third autopsy. Because the case was 20 years old, most of the files were not digital; rather, the investigation focused on old-fashioned reporting: finding and interviewing eyewitnesses (all of whom had not been reinterviewed since the original investigation); analyzing inconsistencies in the witness statements, double-checking the forensics with independent experts.
Tags: autopsy; unsolved death; forensic science; criminal justice system; reopened cases; Arkansas
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Code 3
"Code 3" focused on ambulance delays in San Francisco and provided a rare glimpse inside an inherently complex and often secretive bureaucracy. The project began as a two-day series and continued with several follow-up reports. Paramedics and quality control experts say the city does not have enough ambulances and needs to hire more paramedics. A history of tensions between paramedics and firefighters, and a lack of coordination between the Fire Department, the Department of Emergency Management and the Public Health Department, continues to undercut the city's 911 medical responses and the quality of care. The city does not collect sufficient data on 911 responses to fully audit ambulance delays, examine particular treatments and learn from clinical mistakes
Tags: ambulances; emergency response; San Francisco; first responders; fire department; department of emergency management; public health department
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Is Radiation Killing Our Troops?
"'The Department of Defense uses depleted uranium for armor on tanks and for munitions to penetrate armor on enemy vehicles.'" says DoD medical expert Dr. Michael Kilpatrick. But the use of depleted uranium may be radiating our troops and civilians in Iraq, when "fine dust carrying depleted uranium gets in the lungs and into the lymph system, causing illnesses, includding cancer and birth defects in the children of those exposed." Other possible methods of exposure include ingestion through food or drinking water, and skin contact through open wounds or from embedded shrapnel. (Daytona Beach, FL) News-Journal staffwriter Audrey Parente follows the story of Dustin Brim, who died of cancer after his tour of duty in Iraq. Article has great graphic explaining depleted uranium armor and munitions.
Tags: Iraq; radiation exposure; depleted uranium munitions; DU; Army Spc Dustin Brim; Congress; National Guard; Gulf War illnesses
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Mentally Unfit, Forced to Fight
The series investigated mental health screening and treatment for service members deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on Defense Department records data and interviews with more than 100 mental health experts, service members, and the relatives and friends of troops who committed suicide in the war zone, we reported that the military was increasingly sending, keeping and recycling mentally troubles troops into combat, in violation of the military's own regulations, and with tragic consequences."
Tags: psychology; psychotropic; medication; post-traumatic stress; battlefield; Army Surgeon General
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Selling Drug Secrets
Despite confidentiality contracts, doctors are divulging details of their ongoing drug research - for a fee - to elite investors eager to get an edge in the market. Experts say the practice breaks insider trading laws, violates medical ethics and jeopardizes vital research. And government regulators seem to know nothing about it. We found 26 cases in which doctors leaked confidential and critical details of their ongoing research to Wall Street firms.
Tags: doctors; drug research; pharmaceuticals; insider trading; physicians; medical; CAR
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Kids, Antidepressants, and Money
This series uncovered how Texas was medicating foster children with powerful and sometimes dangerous psychotropic drugs. In many cases, these drugs were not necessary and over-prescribed. The children were being systematically medicated due to the mandated use of a program that was designed by "expert consultants" who were also paid consultants for the pharmaceutical industry.
Tags: psychotropic drugs; foster children; Texas Medical Director; antidepressants; Paxil; Texas Child Welfare System; Federal Medicaid Program
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Senseless Suffering?
This investigation was one of the first to expose the dangers of the non-prescription nasal sprays ZICAM and COLD-EEZE. The story began when one consumer complained that she lost her sense of smell from using the product, which contained zinc gluconate. After extensive research using the Internet and contacting taste and smell experts, the investigation took a turn as the companies responsible for the medication began to deny their product had anything to do with loss of smell. Doctors finally admitted to faulty research and COLD-EEZE was pulled from the shelves, while makers of ZICAM are taking another look at the effects of their product.
Tags: anosmia; homeopathic medicine; ZICAM; Cold-Eeze; Matrixx initiatives; Quigley; Inc; consumer issues
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The Troubles at King/ Drew
The reporters began with a basic analysis of all the hospitals in the Los Angeles County public hospital system. They found that the most severe problems and violations were happening at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, formed after the 1965 Watts riots to serve the poor of southern Los Angeles. The problems ranged from underfunding to staff misdiagnoses, accidental patient deaths, and racist politics on the hospital's Board of Supervisors. The reporters also interviewed healthcare experts and published six detailed possible solutions to the problems facing the hospital.
Tags: healthcare; doctors; pathologist; Medical Board of California; American Medical Association; medical malpractice; civil rights