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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It was a warm, wet winter this year across much of the U.S., which means more snakes and a higher risk of bites. Here are some tips for avoiding vipers and their venom.
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This year, the U.S. has confirmed 550 measles cases so far. A recent spike is connected to outbreaks in New York, but there are outbreaks in four other states too.
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Advisers to the FDA concluded a meeting Tuesday on the safety of breast implants. What's emerged is a lack of scientific certainty about the risks implants pose to millions of women who have them.
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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.
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American teens are chronically sleep deprived, in part because of early school start times. But how much difference can a later start make? As Seattle's school district found out, it can help a lot.
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Why develop an exercise habit now? Because 75-year-olds who've been doing it for decades may have the cardiovascular systems of people in their 40s and the muscles of 20-somethings, researchers found.
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The jury's been out on whether low blood levels of vitamin D increase the risk of colorectal cancer. Researchers say a new review involving more than 12,000 people strongly suggests the answer is yes.
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Noting a sharp rise in colorectal cancer among younger people, the American Cancer Society now suggests that healthy adults get their first screening five years earlier — at age 45.
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A study of patients with low back pain finds that those who got physical therapy first needed fewer pricey scans and surgeries and had "significantly lower out-of-pocket costs" for treatment overall.
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Scientists have long been fascinated with whether dramatically restricting the amount of food we eat can help us live longer. New research suggests it might, but the question is, is it worth it?