Did you hear the news? The Associated Press has updated its style guide — which STAT roughly follows — to change “health care” to “healthcare.” STAT’s director of editorial operations, Sarah Mupo, is still trying to decide whether to follow the AP’s new guidance or to stick with two words. So she’s polling readers — you can weigh in here.
My two cents: I started my career in journalism as a copy editor, and I’m emotionally attached to “health care.” But First Opinion authors almost always use one word instead of two, and my life will be a lot easier if I don’t have to keep changing it in editing and then explaining it when the author tries to revert to one word.
This week on the “First Opinion Podcast”: We’ve gone video! You can still listen to audio-only wherever you get your podcasts, of course, but if you’re into this newfangled video podcasting thing, you can watch me talk to two medical students about how to foster a preventive-care mindset in future physicians.
Recommendation of the week: In the Atlantic, Daniel Engber writes about an autistic young man with minimal ability to speak who allegedly wrote a book by pointing out letters and punctuation on a board to his mother. Engber takes a critical approach to a feel-good story that might just feel a little too good.
