Health Policy Twitterati 2016

It’s summer. It’s time to completely unplug. Turn off the devices. Get off the grid. Take off your shoes and put your feet into the sand. Simply, relax.

But since you’re probably a bit too much like me, and for some inane reason still cut on your phone to check Twitter while on vacation, here are a few folks to follow so you don’t completely forget about the health policy world you left behind.

It’s time for our annual Health Policy Twitterati list.

If you are not already following Dan Diamond, Sarah Kliff, and Jonathan Cohn you probably don’t care enough about health policy. These three health reporters are consumed by it, and subsequently will feed your hunger for policy knowledge.

• Dan has been tracking the lack of Zika funding since the White House requested it over 151 days ago, while also hosting Politico Pulse — a morning briefing on health care politics and policy — and  hosting the PULSE CHECK podcast. This is his 4th consecutive year on this list.
• Sarah, the Deputy Managing Editor for Visuals at Vox and co-host of the Weeds, remains unabashedly Canadian but is hands down one of the top health journalists this side of the 49th parallel. This is her 4th year on the list as well.
• Jonathan, writing primary for The Huffington Post, seems a bit more of an advocate disguised as a journalist…but you can make you own mind up on that. This is his first time on the list.

Two think tanks that rise about the rest – The Commonwealth Fund and Kaiser Family Foundation – are must follows for anyone wanting access to unbiased, objective data regarding health care in America. Almost everywhere I hear policy presentation, there is a KFF slide included somewhere. KFF also provides terrific educational tools for those looking to learn about health policy and the health care system. I also adore Commonwealth’s annual survey of international health systems, yet another great resource for comparing and contrasting health care systems to our own.

If you are not reading Vox or Kaiser Health News yet I encourage you to subscribe to their feeds. The KHN Daily Briefing contains especially high-yield updates on health care and health policy. Also, check out the American Journal of Managed Care, a peer-reviewed publication that touches on many aspects of health policy, not just what is listed in their title.

Lastly, follow these two physicians. Vidya Eswaran, an emergency medicine intern at Northwestern and our own Director of Social Media, will keep you abreast of all things policy as they pertain to physician’s perspective. Vinay Prasad, Assistant Professor at Oregon Health and Sciences University makes the list this year largely due to his rant against free market health care.

Now, go ahead and turn off that phone, tablet, or laptop, take some deep breaths, and enjoy your summer!