Joanne Silberner
Joanne Silberner is a health policy correspondent for National Public Radio. She covers medicine, health reform, and changes in the health care marketplace.
Silberner has been with NPR since 1992. Prior to that she spent five years covering consumer health and medical research at U.S. News & World Report. In addition she has worked at Science News magazine, Science Digest, and has freelanced for various publications. She has been published in The Washington Post, Health, USA Today, American Health, Practical Horseman, Encyclopedia Britannica, and others.
She was a fellow for a year at the Harvard School of Public Health, and from 1997-1998, she had a Kaiser Family Foundation media fellowship. During that fellowship she chronicled the closing of a state mental hospital. Silberner also had a fellowship to study the survivors of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Silberner has won awards for her work from the Society of Professional Journalists, the New York State Mental Health Association, the March of Dimes, Easter Seals, the American Heart Association, and others. Her work has also earned her a Unity Award and a Clarion Award.
A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Silberner holds her B.A. in biology. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
She currently resides in Washington, D.C.
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A new study comes to a conclusion that surprised even the researchers who conducted it: Middle-aged whites in England are significantly healthier than middle-aged whites in the United States. That's despite the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person on health care.
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The Food and Drug Administration declares that there is no medical use for marijuana. The determination returns the FDA to the middle of a politics vs. science battle. Researchers who believe marijuana has medical benefits say the FDA is trying to appease conservative legislators. -
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Researchers have identified clusters of genes that appear to be linked to the tiredness and lack of energy associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The findings, announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, could lead to a better understanding of the condition.
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Dealing with a potentially fatal cancer is difficult for anyone. Doctors with cancer face a special challenge. They're used to giving medical care, not getting it. Two doctors, Elizabeth McKinley and William Tierney, share what they learned as patients.
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Drugs to treat attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder prompt continued debate. An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration has recommended "black box" warnings for all, but a second panel, made up mostly of child psychiatrists and pediatricians, says the dangers do not merit such a warning.
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Americans get surgery for lower-back pain at a higher rate than any other country. Whether that's too many, too few -- or just right -- is a hotly debated subject in orthopedics. At the center of the debate is how to decide who should get surgery for lower back pain. -
Baltimore's Department of Health has developed a plan for dealing with the new Medicare drug benefit. It treats Medicare Part D as a medical emergency, with a response center to handle problems, active outreach to pharmacies, and a fund for purchasing drugs for people who fall between the cracks. -
A Mars factory in Pennsylvania turns out millions of pieces of Dove dark chocolate using a secret method that preserves a compound found in raw cocoa beans. If Mars can harness that compound, chocolate may turn from a comfort food to a health food. -
Medicare recipients can now sign up to get prescription drug insurance through Medicare. But a confusing array of programs and lack of easily found details are keeping some seniors from figuring out the new system, the biggest change in Medicare since it started 40 years ago.
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Last March, Indonesia saw its first polio case in 10 years. Now, 300 children have been crippled and 60,000 infected. Before health officials can stamp polio out, they'll have to win over parents distrustful of the vaccine.
