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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The suicide rate has increased in the past decade, despite the best efforts of hotlines and prevention programs. A Detroit health plan set a zero suicide goal among its members — and achieved it. -
As it marks its 60th birthday, the injectable vaccine is still critical. It's "needed to end polio for good," as Carol Pendak of Rotary's Polio Plus program puts it. -
Dr. Tony McMichael was a lonely crusader. He wanted governments to pay attention to ways that earth's changing climate will affect the health of all — with the poor likely to suffer the most. -
Filmmaker Tom Roberts was definitely not interested when he was first asked to make a movie about the disease. Then he began to do some research. "Every Last Child" is the result.
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Nigeria knows how to beat back polio. And that's helped in the battle against Ebola. But other West African countries are struggling to beat the deadly virus — and neglecting anti-polio efforts. -
Among advocates for improving sanitation through better toilet access, the only question is whether to play it straight or joke about the john. Pretty much everyone seems to give in to humor. -
Storytelling can be a way of giving people with dementia a low-stress way to communicate, one that does not rely on their memories. And it can give caregivers a chance to reconnect with their loved ones. -
The federal government wants the nation's employers to help in the fight against the H1N1 swine flu. It's developed a set of guidelines for businesses to follow. The major goal is to keep sick workers at home, not at work spreading the flu.
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The federal government has started testing vaccines against the swine flu. About 2,800 volunteers at eight sites across the country will be rolling up their sleeves in the next week to receive experimental flu shots. U.S. Health officials are preparing for a possible fall outbreak.
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U.S. officials say it is too early to say whether the swine flu threat is receding. When the outbreak was first detected, the U.S. government was prepared. Morning Edition goes behind the scenes to the strategy center at the Department of Health and Human Services that is coordinating the medical response.
