With journalists that much more focused on health-related topics, the opportunities to have your message amplified through the media have never been greater.
Still, reaching out to the right medical and healthcare journalists is key and having access to the right media database is a great start. You can save lots of time and effort by using a shortcut to a targeted audience ready to hear your pitch.
If you're looking for some high-profile health reporters yourself, start your search here:
- Caitlin Owens, Author at Axios Vitals
- Julie Rovner, Chief Washington Correspondent at Kaiser Health News
- Sarah Kliff, The New York Times
- Glen Gilmore
- Eric Topol, Scripps Research Translational Institute
- Dr. David Katz
- Charles Ornstein, Managing Editor at ProPublica
The most influential medical and healthcare journalists
Caitlin Owens, Author at Axios Vitals
Axios serves up daily doses of must-have bits of news from across a wide spectrum of topics. Their healthcare-focused page takes headlines and trending topics and posts them in an easily scanned, time-friendly format. Give Axios a couple of minutes and they’ll get you up to date with the stories that matter today.
Caitlin Owens is part of a small team that selects and breaks down the day’s healthcare news stories. If your announcement is relevant to public policy, current official initiatives, or a trending political topic, this is definitely a contact to have on your list. As a high-level experienced pro, she will be used to incoming requests and will be able to understand the significance of your announcement in terms of the medical and healthcare industries.
Julie Rovner, Chief Washington Correspondent at Kaiser Health News
Jule Rovner has a high profile across platforms and a diversified audience of fellow journalists, healthcare professionals, and those simply keeping up with events in the industry. She is currently Chief Washington Correspondent for Kaiser Health News.
Her regular podcast, What the Health?, gives her a platform to share an entertaining and informative discussion about the healthcare-related news of the day. It’s also where she meets an impressive list of guests from just about every major media outlet you can think of. She even welcomes high-ranking policymakers from time to time as well for the ultimate inside look at the public policy on healthcare matters.
Before moving to Kaiser Health News, Rovner spent several years at NPR and her archive is still available there for anyone curious about the details of her involvement in healthcare journalism.
Sarah Kliff, The New York Times
Staying with the New York Times, Sarah Kliff does deeper dives into healthcare topics, going well beyond standard news coverage. Many of those investigations reveal the disconnect between the good intentions of healthcare policy and the real effects it has on the lives of citizens.
Her archive at the NYT shows that she also keeps up with day-to-day developments in the halls of power as well and somehow manages to publish at an impressive pace while still producing long-form pieces.
A frequent guest on media platforms of every kind, Kliff manages to bridge the divide between big-picture forces influencing healthcare policy and human-scale stories of the situation on the ground.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Chief Medical Correspondent at CNN
It doesn’t get much more high-profile than Dr. Sanjay Gupta when it comes to connecting with a mass audience. Sure, this might be the top of the public relations mountain but there’s no harm in trying!
Some might dispute the “medical journalist” tag here since Gupta is probably more accurately described as a medical practitioner who serves as a voice of authority for media outlets. Still, his media footprint is huge and interest from him, and certainly a mention, can elevate any announcement or development in medicine or healthcare to instant mainstream status.
If your PR news is worthy of this kind of interest, by all means, do everything you can to get it in front of someone like Sanjay Gupta. Be aware that this is a high bar, however, so be sure to turbocharge your media pitch with every bit of information you can in the most appealing presentation possible.
Glen Gilmore
The age of social media has dramatically changed the conventional meaning of “journalist”. This new flexibility has come to include people who share their interests with large online followings. Sometimes those interests are quite narrow, while others are rather broad-based.
Put Glen Gilmore in that second category. As an advocate for digital transformation in any number of business verticals, Gilmore is focused on the intersection of digitization and business growth of every kind. This includes stories from the healthcare sector, particularly those featuring new efficiencies driven by technology. If this applies to your PR space, Glen Gilmore should be at the top of your media contact list.
Eric Topol, Scripps Research Translational Institute
The research aspect of medical and healthcare news is often overlooked in the media and that’s where Eric Topol comes in.
As Director of Scripps Research Translational Institute, Topol is on the cutting edge of research into a wide variety of fields. In this capacity, he is also extremely involved in the relationship between government, the medical field, pharmaceuticals, and every other player in the healthcare landscape.
Topol is a frequent guest on television, radio, and podcasts. In addition to being the author of several books and more than a thousand articles, Topol was selected as the #1 most Influential physician leader in the United States in a national poll conducted by Modern Healthcare. How’s that for thought leadership?
Dr. David Katz
Here’s another example of someone who is a healthcare professional above all else but has a profile as an influencer and media source of information.
Having achieved basically everything in the field of medicine, Dr. David Katz is now active as a medical journalist, advocate for healthy lifestyles, author, and speaker. His profile has been noticeably enhanced during the coronavirus epidemic and his Twitter feed makes it clear that he reads and comments on pretty much everything between other engagements.
Charles Ornstein, Managing Editor at ProPublica
As part of ProPublica, Charles Ornstein is involved with many aspects of the news but the events of the last year have led him to a focus on healthcare journalism. Naturally, this began with the COVID outbreak but has grown to take him to a wide range of issues, all broadly related by their connection to medical, scientific and governmental actors.
Ornstein’s interests also include the operations of “Big Pharma” and is role in shaping public policy.
Find more medical and healthcare media contacts
If you're looking for even more reporters covering healthcare, you can find literally thousands of them in Prowly's media database. Search by niche, location, outlet, and job position to find the most relevant ones for your story.
Try it completely free for 7-days with full search access and see if it's a match for you.
Cover photo by Ibrahim Boran
