The Excellence in Health Journalism Awards 2023 are now CLOSED for submissions. Awards submissions are to be lodged by
Friday 21 April 2023.
The award will recognise journalists who have contributed the best work on Health Journalism within the last 12 months (April 22 to March 23)
Their journalism will have broadened community understanding of health issues and/or events and explained or examined related policies, technologies, trends and/or personnel in their chosen medium.
The overall winning journalist will receive a cash prize of $20,000 and have their name inscribed on the honour board permanently displayed at the National Press Club of Australia.
The Awards categories are:
- Cancer: Includes stories reporting on policy, services, affordability, research, innovation, PBS, prevention, and treatment.
- COVID-19: Includes stories reporting on research, politics vaccines, policy, treatment, and prevention.
- Health Policy: Includes Medicare, private health, hospital, Pharmacy and allied health
- Health Innovation: Includes health research, health technology, innovations in health.
Each category winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000.
The Award is proudly supported by Rare Cancers and Prospection.
VIEW SUBMISSION GUIDELINES HERE
Awards submissions are to be lodged by Friday 21 April 2023.
Applications must be submitted below via the Health Journalism Awards Website Submission Form.
**Applicants are required to disclose if their entry or related journalism is or has been subject to any form of litigation such as claims for defamation or libel etc. In any event, applicants will indemnify the National Press Club, its judges and corporate partners from any claim for damages and other financial settlements awarded by a court.
MEDIA RELEASE
Winners announced – Excellence in Health Journalism Awards
HEALTH JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED
Adele Ferguson & Chris Gillett – Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and ABC 7.30 have been named Health Journalists of the Year in the National Press Club’s 2023 Health Journalism Awards.
There were four categories in this year’s awards – Health Policy, Cancer, COVID-19, and Health Innovation - with the Health Journalist of the Year selected from the winners of each category.
The awards are supported by Rare Cancers Australia & health data analytics company Prospection in partnership with the National Press Club of Australia with the overall winner receiving $20,000 and each category winner $1,000.
The judges were unanimous in selecting Adele Ferguson’s and Chris Gillett’s joint investigation into suspected fraud, overservicing and other misconduct which has drained billions of dollars from Medicare and helped prompt an independent review of the healthcare scheme.
The judges said the range and quality of stories entered this year suggests health journalism in Australia is producing some excellent stories. However, ‘The investigation into the Medicare rorts by the SMH and Age in conjunction with the ABC was obviously the outstanding entry.”
The category winners were –
HEALTH POLICY winning entry: Adele Ferguson & Chris Gillett, for their series on Medicare.
Health Policy commendation: Natasha Robinson, The Australian, for her stories in The Australian and The Weekend Australian – Shake-up for ‘unfit’ Medicare and Sick System can be saved.
CANCER winning entry: Monique Pablos and Alex Tarney, SBS Insight, for the program’s Outliving Your Cancer Prognosis. The judges described it as an excellent program exploring sensitive issues involving the realities of dealing with a diagnosis of cancer from the perspective of both patients and their doctors.
Cancer commendation: Robyn Riley, Herald Sun, for Victoria Leading the world in cure for childhood cancer and Kids cancer heart links.
COVID-19 winning entry – Liam Mannix, The Age and Sydney Morning Herald, for a selection of stories looking at those people in the community still at risk from Covid and those suffering from the impact of long Covid, particularly children. These included Lulu is 11. She has long COVID. Her mother just wants someone to help.
COVID-19 commendation: Sahil Makkar and Yumi Oba, SBS, for SBS multi-language Coronavirus Portal assisting non-English speakers with the latest information on Covid.
HEALTH INNOVATION winning entry: Stephen Schubert, ABC News, for How artificial intelligence is helping to detect heart disease in remote Australia. The story looked at the use of AI as part of a trial being conducted by the Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute at five sites across regional and remote Australia in cooperation with Aboriginal community health groups.
Health Innovation commendation: Andrew Probyn, ABC, for The most Famous Australian you’ve never heard of. The inspiring story of Bendigo-born doctor John Gorman whose pioneering medical research led to the development of a treatment for Rh disease and in the process saved millions of babies’ lives. At the age of 91 Dr Gorman continues to work with an international consortium of doctors and scientists to eradicate Rh disease worldwide.
These awards are supported by Rare Cancers Australia and Prospection (see below) in partnership with the National Press Club of Australia.
Judges were Laurie Wilson (NPC Awards Chair and former club president) Tim Shaw ( NPC Director & Awards Committee) and Donna Edman (Astute Advocacy)
Media Contact: Maurice Reilly CEO National Press Club.
Email: ceo@npc.org.au
Award Partners
Rare Cancers Australia Ltd.
Rare Cancers is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of people with rare and less common cancers. They provide support, education, and advocacy for patients, carers, and healthcare professionals.
Prospection is a health data analytics company that uses advanced data science and machine learning techniques to help healthcare providers improve patient outcomes.
Prospection Healthcare Data Analytics
Prospection is a Healthcare Data Analytics expert.
This Australian company provides indispensable data insights that inform decisions to measurably improve health outcomes across Australia, Japan, Asia Pacific, UK, and USA
