http://blog.cleveland.com/health/2008/08/coping_when_all_is_hopeless_th.html

Diana Keough, co-editor in chief and senior producer at medicalmommas.com,  finished first in the Health and Fitness category of the
Missouri School of Journalism today announced the 2008 Missouri
Lifestyle Journalism Awards.

More than 100 newspapers and writers submitted more than 1,100 entries
for this 48th year of the contest, originally known as Penney-Missouri.
It is the oldest and best-known feature writing and editing competition
in American newspapering. Winners receive $1,000 in prize money and a
lead crystal vase trophy.

She won for a story published in The Plain Dealer titled, “Coping when
all is hopeless.”

Here’s what the judges had to say:

“We often read good stories about patients who are coping with dying,
but we rarely get to read stories about doctors who are coping with
dying patients. Often these doctors are reticent to reveal their feeling
about this important work. That is not the case with this story. Dr.
Bruce Cohen is a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic who cares for patients fighting tumors, cancer, cysts and seizures. The writer got this man to speak candidly
about how losing patients affects him * he knows the names of all his
patients who have died. This is a wonderful inside look beyond the staid
doctor profiles written by a journalist with a talent for telling
elegant everyday stories.”

Other finalists were “A doctor at war,” by Abigail Tucker of The
Baltimore Sun and “The high price of keeping Dad alive,” by Laura
Meckler, The Wall Street Journal.

Andrea Kane has been writing and producing health care and medical news for television, the web and various magazines for more than 15 years. Most recently, she was the Wellness Correspondent for the nascent travelgirl magazine, where she wrote on a wide variety of topics, from the ancient healing traditions of Hawaii to traveling with baby in-utero to the health benefits of a monastic retreat.

Prior to that, Andrea was a staff writer at WebMD (and its predecessor Medcast) where she worked on everything from breaking news stories to medical conferences to in-depth trend pieces.

During her many years as a writer and producer in CNN’s award-winning medical unit, she was responsible for (among other things) producing daily medical stories, writing and producing the weekend show Your Health and helped launch the monthly Better Health Network.

Somehow, somewhere along the line, amidst the writing and reporting frenzy, she managed to give birth to two terrific daughters, who also appear to have ink running in their veins and are never at a loss for words (the wheels of karma have a tight turning radius, indeed).

Andrea attended Vassar College and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. A native New Yorker, she moved to Atlanta 15 years ago. MedicalMommas.com is her fourth start up experience, after travelgirl, WebMD, and Better Health Network.

She now lives in Atlanta with her husband and two daughters. 

Gina Hill has been a journalist for more than 16 years – the majority of that time has been spent exclusively in medical journalism.

As a producer with CNN’s Medical News Unit, she coordinated coverage of large medical conferences and breaking health news. During that time, Gina also received many national awards for in-depth coverage of topical health issues from groups like the National Mental Health Association and The American Academy of Nursing.

Dreams of a desk job led to a role at WebMD as Assistant Managing Editor. There she monitored medical research and worked with physicians and writers to create the best coverage for WebMD’s audience. She also wrote many of WebMD’s e-newsletters on topics ranging from breast cancer to skin and beauty.

Since leaving WebMD in 2001, Gina has been a freelance writer, editor, and television producer. In that time she has continued her work with WebMD and spent a year as the Health Editor for CNN.com.

She was born and raised in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and graduated from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a degree in Communications. Now Gina lives outside Atlanta with her husband and young son.  Her hobbies include reading, cooking and finding interesting ways to beat stress. 

Diana also covered breaking news stories, including reports on the implantable breathing device, the heartbreaking bus crash of the Bluffton baseball team, the latest trends in adolescent drug behavior and plastic surgery on vaginas. (Diana believes the editors are still wondering how they let the latter story onto the front page…)

Before joining the paper full-time in 2004, Diana was an award-winning freelance journalist whose work appeared regularly in all sections of The Plain Dealer and its Sunday Magazine. She was a regular contributor to Beliefnet.com, the premier web site on religious news and wrote book reviews for two popular sites, The Book Review and faithfulreader.com, as well as Living Without, a national healthcare publication. She also worked as a reporter and commentator on the local National Public Radio affiliate and as a TV news analyst on PBS’s NewsNight Akron.

Diana majored in political science and journalism at the University of Missouri. After college she returned to Washington, D.C to continue the political journalism path she began in high school, when she served as Strom Thurmond’s Senate page. During college, she was back in nation’s capitol, this time as an intern reporting for UPI in the White House and on Capitol Hill. After graduation, she moved to D.C. and took a Senate staff position with the intention of eventually becoming a press secretary. But falling in love, marrying her high school sweetheart and giving birth to four boys trumped her career ambition but not her desire to write–something she did quite prolifically between multiple moves (Hawaii, California, Australia and Ohio), naps and carpools.

As soon as her youngest son was old enough to tie his own shoes, she joined The Plain Dealer full-time.

She left the paper in 2007, following love again. This time, to Atlanta where her husband accepted a job with a new firm and she accepted a teaching position in the Journalism program at Emory University.

Like the Rowlands, Diana and her husband are also Milwaukee natives. The Keough’s and their four boys now live in Atlanta.

MedicalMommas.com is currently staffed by four journalists. 

Rhonda Rowland and Diana Keough are Co-Editors-in-Chief/Senior Producers.  Both are award-winning medical journalists with over 40 years of cumulative health care medical journalism in television, print, radio and internet communications under their belts. 

Joining them with be producers and content editors, Andrea Kane and Gina Hill, both of whom formerly worked for the CNN Medical Unit and WebMd. 

In today’s blog, we’ll highlight Rhonda Rowland. 

                Rhonda Rowland began her health care journalism career over 20 years ago, as an associate producer in the CNN Medical News Unit and quickly rose through the ranks to become a senior producer.  Her responsibilities ranged from story research, field production, script writing, determining story coverage, vetting breaking medical news to staff assignments, reporter script approval, producing the weekend half-hour medical show, coordinating coverage of the International AIDS Conferences and more.

                In 1992, Rhonda began to report on-camera as a medical correspondent.  Over the next decade she reported on such issues as women’s health, mental health, neurological disorders, cancer and heart disease.

                 She was the first journalist to report on the breakthrough cancer drug, Gleevec, and did an exclusive story on the first artificial heart patient who was able to leave the hospital and return home.  She’s reported breaking news events such as Vice President Dick Cheney’s heart trouble, the eruption of the West Nile Virus, changes in vaccine recommendations and the anthrax attacks following 9/11.

Rhonda was the first broadcast journalist to receive the American Heart Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.  That year she also received the CDC’s Award for Excellence in Reporting.  Other accolades include the TIME, Inc. Freddie Award in 2000 for her report “A Baby by Design,” and in 1999 for her profile piece on medical pioneer, Elisabeth Kubler Ross.  Her work has been recognized by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, American College of Emergency Physicians, American College of Radiology, American College of Ob/Gyn, National Alliance for the Mentally Ill and the National Association of Science Writers.

Along the way she paused long enough to give birth to her son and adopt a little girl from China.

 She left her television career to devote more time to her young children, working on short-term projects that kept her closer to home.  Those projects included broadcast hosting and interviewing, voice-over work, consulting and media training to DVD production and segment production for the start-up venture, Everwell TV.

Rhonda is married to her college sweetheart, a fellow Wisconsin-native and University of Wisconsin alum. 

As girlfriends we trust each other with our secrets. We know where to go to get the truth–straight medical talk with others who have been there, sharing what it’s like to go through it and informing us, “This is what I wish I had known,” before starting down this path.    

Diana Keough and Rhonda Rowland, editors-in-chief and senior producers of MedicalMommas.com, are not tweeners, or X’s or Y’s but experienced medical journalists with over 40 years of cumulative experience.  We were born at the tail end of boomerdom. We’re wives, moms and sisters who have left babyhood and preschool, given away our strollers and thrown out our mom jeans and intend to stride confidently into our middle years wearing designer jeans and bikinis. 

 Join us.

MedicalMommas.com is here to be your girlfriend, to cover serious and the not-so-serious medical issues. We’re building a community, a safe place where you can be real, ask questions and share what you’ve learned. We’ll talk about what’s important to you, the men in your lives, your families and your aging parents.

As seasoned, award-winning journalists, we know how to navigate through reams of data and pull out the credible nuggets of vital information.  We’ll do all the work and provide a venue for you to take advantage of what we find out and share your gems and life experience with old friends and new ones you meet on our site.   

You’ll receive insight from top medical experts and feel like you’re part of the conversations we have with them. If you have questions, our blog will allow you to interact with these experts and other women like you, who have experienced what you’re experiencing and have been there.

We all have questions about our health care and how to feel our best.  There will be times when our health – or our family’s health – will be among life’s greatest trials.  MedicalMommas.com intends to be there for you—and with you—to help you find the credible information you need to care for yourself and your family.