How a Reuters reporter got her Apple scoop

Last week, Reuters was first with the news that Apple Inc has been discussing how its “HealthKit” service will work with health providers at Mount Sinai, the Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins as well as with Allscripts, a competitor to electronic health records provider Epic Systems.

In a Reuters Best: Journalist Spotlight Q&A, correspondent Christina Farr offers an inside look at how she scored the scoop.

Here is an excerpt:

Q. What types of reporting/sourcing were involved?

A. Key sources included policy-makers in D.C., health privacy specialists, health developers and startups, spokespeople from advocacy groups, hospital CIOS and Apple employees, as well as current and former senior-ranking government officials.

Q. What was the hardest part about reporting this story?

A. We also delved into some of Apple’s challenges from a privacy and security perspective, as well as the key regulation. I spent over a week speaking with policy experts to ensure that those key details were spot on in the story. It’s a tricky area to navigate, as the law is constantly changing and new products like HealthKit are somewhat confusing to regulators. We also wanted to point to the areas of the law that are ambiguous, where Apple may run into issues later down the line.

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