WSJ, Modern Healthcare, STAT win health care reporting awards

The Wall Street Journal, Crain Publication’s Modern Healthcare and STAT were among the winners of the 23rd annual National Institution for Health Care Management Foundation’s journalism awards.

The winning entries were chosen by independent panels of highly esteemed journalists and researchers. The winners and finalists will be honored at a banquet in Washington, D.C. next month, and the winners will each receive a $10,000 cash prize.

The Journal won the General Circulation Print Journalism Award for “Hooked: The global causes and human consequences of America’s addiction to opioids,” which revealed how the heavy-duty painkiller fentanyl became a deadly street drug.

The judges said “every word was a magnificent read” and called it “pretty amazing,” applauding the reporters for exposing how illicit fentanyl enters the U.S. and for showing the trauma experienced by the children of addicts.

Modern Healthcare won the Trade Journalism Award for “Wounded Care.”

This series explored the state of affairs within the Indian Health Service through on-the-ground reporting and analysis of persistent problems with federal funding and patient safety. The judges said this issue was “off the radar screen” and called Modern Healthcare “admirable” for drawing attention to this “intractable problem.”

STAT won the Digital Media Award for its coverage of the opioid crisis.

This multi-media accounting of the opioid crisis exposed what’s fueling the epidemic and offered a testament to how fentanyl is destroying lives. The judges called the series “phenomenal” and “a cut above,” noting its “stunning” visuals, the “breadth of investigation” and the “novelty” of the story angles.

See all of the winners here.