Columbia Journalism School is presenting a new series focused on how its academic programs have been training students to become leading health care reporters. Around the globe, the work of health care journalists is vital for keeping the public aware of how the actions of hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, health insurers, health care professionals, government agencies, and policymakers can impact our lives and well-being. Today, we are spotlighting 2019 Master of Science Program, Stabile Investigative Specialization graduate Tess Riski, who, while still a Columbia student, published her master's project as a New York Times investigative story.
Collaborating with Times reporters Katie Thomas and Natasha Singer, Riski wrote about quality control problems at Nurx, a San Francisco-based health-tech startup known as the "Uber of birth control" that sells contraceptives through a prescribing app. Through her reporting, Riski found that the company regularly cut corners and ignored regulations as it loosened its prescription procedures.
Riski discovered the story at the beginning of Columbia's academic year. "I would scroll through my Facebook news feed and see sponsored posts for Nurx," Riski explained. "Being a part of the company's target market, I thought it was an interesting concept. But, I would notice on some of the posts that there were a lot of angry reactions....I started reading the comments and saw a comment from a woman named Stefanie who wrote that she nearly died from her experience on the app. I decided to message her on Facebook. She replied right away, so we got to talking on the phone a few days later and she told me the whole story." Stefanie Kovaleski, a Detroit teacher, told Riski that she had been prescribed a medication through Nurx that caused her to develop life-threatening embolisms. "It was a pretty harrowing tale about her experience with the app," Riski said. "I figured, 'okay, there's something here.'"
Using LinkedIn, Riski then messaged former Nurx employees to see if they would tell her about the company and its culture. One former staff member soon wrote back and became an off-the-record source, outlining concerns about Nurx's prescription procedures and helping Riski identify people to contact and specific issues to investigate further.
Knowing that there could be an important story to tell about Nurx's quality control problems, Riski decided to develop it as her master's project with faculty adviser Charles Ornstein. A Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and deputy managing editor at ProPublica who teaches the Columbia class "Investigating Health Care," Professor Ornstein helped guide Riski through the bureaucratic, legal, and business aspects of the healthcare industry. "Health care is a complicated topic and he helped me understand how to navigate it, how to write in a way that's not jargony, and how to interview medical experts," she said. "He was there pretty much every step of the way."
Ornstein also connected Riski with Katie Thomas and Natasha Singer at The New York Times, which had been looking into Nurx as well. "They were really interested that I had an actual customer who was harmed through the app," Riski explained. With the Times behind the story, Riski was able to convince more former Nurx employees to discuss their concerns about the company's loose quality control. Several of them went on record, confirming that the company had ignored or violated state and federal laws surrounding the sale and shipment of prescription medication.
When interviewing former Nurx employees, Riski drew upon the training she received in the Stabile Investigative Program to get them to share crucial information. "The interview techniques we learned in Stabile were extremely helpful," she said. "One time, our professor Jim Mintz, who is a private investigator, had an actor come in to our class. Jim played the part of the interviewer and she played the part of an employee. She modeled for us the best way to get people to open up when they have signed nondisclosure agreements and are afraid to talk to you. I used that a lot in my reporting."
With nine former Nurx employees, including the company's former medical director, talking on record about the problems at the company, The New York Times published "Chasing Growth, a Women's Health Start-Up Cut Corners" on April 26, 2019, four weeks before Riski's Columbia graduation. "It was really exciting," Riski said. "I definitely have a piece of the story clipped out on my wall."
Following her graduation from Columbia, Riski landed an internship at The Wall Street Journal. Although she arrived at Columbia expecting to focus on criminal justice, Riski is now interested in continuing to report about health care. "When I did this story, I realized that health care touches everybody," Riski explained. "It's something that gets to the core of the human experience. We all deal with being sick and we all have a family member or a friend who deals with being sick. Going through the health care system can be one of the most traumatic and painful things that people deal with. Taking into account the way the health care system can hurt them along the way is really important. There are so many meaningful stories you can find on the health care beat."
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