Mayo Clinic, Cronkite School Launch Medical Journalism Fellowship Program

Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018

  

Mayo Clinic and Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication have established a new fellowship program in which medical journalists from across the country will receive intensive training to cover medicine.

The Mayo Clinic-Cronkite Fellowship will bring up to 15 leading professional journalists to the Cronkite School and Mayo Clinic in Arizona in May for five days of interactive workshops and seminars. All expenses are fully paid for this program.

Selected fellows will explore augmented human intelligence, personalized medicine, regenerative medicine and more. Training sessions will include non-narrative video, narrative writing and investigative reporting.

“Education is a fundamental part of Mayo’s mission as a not-for-profit academic medical center,” said John Wald, M.D., a neuro radiologist and medical director of public affairs at Mayo Clinic. “This program, in collaboration with Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is a wonderful way for journalists to receive hands-on training to cover medical stories.”

Julia Wallace, the Cronkite School’s Frank Russell Chair who previously served as a top media executive and high-ranking newspaper editor, is leading the program, which also will explore fake news in health care, challenges for female physicians and other newsworthy topics.

Instructors include Leonard Downie Jr., the former executive editor of The Washington Post and current Weil Family Professor of Journalism at the Cronkite School, media literacy expert and Professor of Practice Dan Gillmor, analytics expert Jessica Pucci, Ethics and Excellence Professor of Practice, and former New York Times Phoenix Bureau Chief Fernanda Santos.

The fellowship is part of the Mayo Clinic and ASU Alliance for Health Care, a transformative research partnership designed to improve all aspects of healthcare delivery through research and collaboration.

Announced in 2016, the partnership aims to transform medical education and health care in the U.S., helping doctors reduce costs, simplify the system and save more lives.

“Journalists play a critical role in our public health system in communicating vital information to communities,” said Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan. “We are thrilled to be partnering with the Mayo Clinic, the world leader in patient care and research.”

Mayo Clinic-Cronkite Fellowship will be held May 13-18, 2018. The deadline to apply is April 1, 2018. Get more information and apply at https://cronkite.asu.edu/content/mayo-clinic-cronkite-medical-journalism-fellowship.