AHCJ announces winners of 2024 health journalism contest

AHCJ is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2024 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.

Now in its 21st year, the contest recognizes the best of health care journalism across all platforms. The 2024 contest drew 438 entries in 14 categories; there were 14 first-place winners.

“Every year the contest committee takes steps to improve the AHCJ Awards. This year we chose to focus on revamping the student category in an effort to level the playing field for student reporters,” said Christine Herman, AHCJ board member and contest committee chair.

This year, entries to the Student category were limited to work that was created by a student (high school, college or grad student) for a class, a student-led publication, or a university-based outlet. The contest committee also conducted a massive email campaign to invite journalism students from colleges, universities and student newspapers across the country to submit.

“And the result was great: We got the highest turnout for student submissions that we’ve ever had,” Herman said. “We’re also incredibly grateful to the more than 100 judges who gave their time to evaluate entries and choose this year’s winners. We could not run this contest without you!”

And the award goes to…

The winner of the Audio Reporting (large division) category is Shoshana Wlater, Marianne McCune and Jenny Casas,  who examined the case of a woman losing custody of her newborn after testing positive for opioids — triggered by eating a poppy seed salad — exposing flawed drug testing practice, for Reveal, The Center for Investigative reporting and PRX/The Marshall Project.

In Audio Reporting (small division), first place went to Jordan Gass-Pooré, who explored how the accidental 1938 discovery of Teflon in South Jersey led to widespread PFAS contamination — for NJ Spotlight News and NJ PBS.

The New York Times reporter Stephanie Nolen took first place in the Beat Reporting category for covering Mpox.

Staff at NBC News and Noticias Telemundo won first place in the Awards for Excellence Business category for their investigation of the use of unclaimed bodies for medical research.

In the Consumer/Feature category (large division), Sarah Zhang won first place for her reporting for The Atlantic on the cystic fibrosis break through that changed everything. In the small division, Esther Landhuis nabbed first place with a story for Undark Magazine on a controversial diagnosis increasingly vaccepted among doctors.

For the Health Policy category, Lev Facher for STAT won first place in the large division for their coverage on how the U.S. denies lifesaving medications to people with opioid addiction. Michelle Crouch for the North Carolina Health News and The Charlotte Ledger was selected as first-place winner of the small division for their reporting on Atrium Health.

The staff of The Boston Globe claimed first place in the Investigative (large division) category, for their investigation of Steward Health Care. Mary Claire Molloy and Jenna Watson for Mirror Indy won the small division for reporting on abuse allegations of a behavioral health center.

In the Public Health category, Katherine Eban and Stan Friedman of Vanity Fair won first place (large division) for coverage of the bungled bird flu response. In the small division, Jon Cohen and Adullahi Tsanni of Science won first place for their work tracking infectious diseases in Nigeria.

Cindy Shan, a student at Columbia Journalism School, took first place in the Student Reporting category for work covering alzheimers in the Bronx’s hispanic community for the Bronx Bulletin, site published by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and run by students.

In the Trade publications category, Patrick Boyle, Laura Zelaya, and the editorial and design staff of the Association of American Medical Colleges took first place for coverage of the long-term impact of mass shootings on the doctors who respond.

Check out the complete list of Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism winners here.

Entries were judged by more than 100 volunteers who are current or retired journalists, or journalism professors.

All prizes will be presented during the Health Journalism 2025 awards luncheon on May 31 in Los Angeles. First-place winners will receive $500 and complimentary lodging for two nights and registration for one person at the annual conference.

Oversight and support for the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism comes from the AHCJ Contest Committee, co-chaired by AHCJ board members Christine Herman and Jonathan Rockoff. The committee also includes board members Joyce Frieden, Randy Dotinga, Carrie Feibel, Renuka Rayasam and Sabriya Rice and member volunteers Pauline Arrillaga, Lauren Bavis, Mat Edelson, Jason Kane and Mia de Graaf. AHCJ members interested in serving on the committee can contact us at contest@healthjournalism.org.

Special thanks to AHCJ staff member Tina England for the organizational excellence and administrative care she brings to the year-round management of contest operations.

https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2025/04/ahcj-announces-winners-of-2024-health-journalism-contest/