Patti Neighmond
Award-winning journalist Patti Neighmond is NPR's health policy correspondent. Her reports air regularly on NPR newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition.
Based in Los Angeles, Neighmond has covered health care policy since April 1987. She joined NPR's staff in 1981, covering local New York City news as well as the United Nations. In 1984, she became a producer for NPR's science unit and specialized in science and environmental issues.
Neighmond has earned a broad array of awards for her reporting. In 1993, she received the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of health reform. That same year, she received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for a story on a young quadriplegic who convinced Georgia officials that she could live at home less expensively and more happily than in a nursing home. In 1990, Neighmond won the World Hunger Award for a story about healthcare and low-income children. She received two awards in 1989: a George Polk Award for her powerful ten-part series on AIDS patient Archie Harrison, who was taking the anti-viral drug AZT; and a Major Armstrong Award for her series on the Canadian health care system. The Population Institute, based in Washington, DC, has presented its radio documentary award to Neighmond twice: in 1988 for "Family Planning in India" and in 1984 for her coverage of overpopulation in Mexico. Her 1987 report "AIDS and Doctors" won the National Press Club Award for Consumer Journalism, and her two-part series on the aquaculture industry earned the 1986 American Association for the Advancement of Science Award.
Neighmond began her career in journalism in 1978, at the Pacifica Foundation's DC bureau, where she covered Capitol Hill and the White House. She began freelance reporting for NPR from New York City in 1980. Neighmond earned her bachelor's degree in English and drama from the University of Maryland, and now lives in Los Angeles.
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Following several measles outbreaks this winter, there is a movement among some states to make it more difficult for people to claim nonmedical exemptions to vaccine laws. -
African-Americans still have the highest death rate and the lowest survival rate of any U.S. racial or ethnic group for most cancers. But the "cancer gap" between blacks and whites is shrinking. -
An influential expert panel recommends pregnant women at risk of depression get referred to counseling to prevent the illness. But for many women and their doctors, it may be easier said than done. -
In a recent survey, 1 in 5 parents thought that using a household spoon was OK for measuring their child's medicine. It's not. Here's how to help little kids without overdosing them. -
Frostbite can nip ears in just a few minutes in the sort of temperatures many Americans are facing this week. Pull that hat down and curb the drinking; alcohol can impair your judgment of temperature. -
As of Monday, public health authorities reported 36 cases, most affecting children under the age of 10. Most of those with the highly contagious disease had not been vaccinated. -
Public health authorities in Washington States are struggling to contain a big outbreak of measles that has prompted them to declare an emergency.
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Whether it's exercise or housework, older Americans who move their bodies regularly may preserve more of their memory and thinking skills, even if they have brain lesions and other signs of dementia. -
Pregnant women in intensive care with severe cases of the flu have a higher risk of giving birth to babies prematurely. The risk of breathing problems for the baby is also substantially higher. -
Knowing how to differentiate between symptoms of each can be important, especially if you're at high risk for flu's complications. Influenza can lead to pneumonia, hospitalization and even death.
