Check-up time. Reporters are using computers to probe the medical industry. From the business of health care to dying babies, journalists are using databases for better stories. This month, Uplink focuses on those efforts. The coverage begins on page 4. The Poynter Institute's Nora Paul tells you where to go on the Internet for information on health-care finances. Reporters from Newsday, U.S. News & World Report, Hartford Courant and Tacoma (Wash.) News Tribune offer tips from their work.
Those range from examining transplant survival rates to uncovering hospitals that infect patients. In addition, government agencies are beginning to offer certain reports only on-line. Check the back page for two that have started to release information only that way. More parts of the federal government are considering such moves. It's one more sign that computer-assisted reporting is not optional for newsrooms.