On Fridays, we schedule our rounds with Healthcare Brew readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.
This week’s Making Rounds spotlights Amanda Eisenberg, our New York City-based founding editor who started this newsletter in October 2022. Eisenberg discussed her goals for Healthcare Brew, and the healthcare topics she is passionate about.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in journalism?
My job is a lot of management and organization, as well as thinking about the big picture of healthcare and what’s interesting to our readers. My goal is to make sure every story we publish is compelling, and to seek out an angle that maybe mainstream media outlets are not necessarily covering…to highlight women and marginalized people. Those are things I’m really passionate about. We try to think about the news and think about the business of healthcare in that way.
What is the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
It’s been really exciting to see the level of enthusiasm our readers have for Healthcare Brew. I have not had that kind of relationship with readers before on this scale. Our readership growth has been tremendous. The amount of feedback I get and the reporters get has been so fulfilling, because often it feels like—especially with newsletters—you’re often sending them out into a void or you’re not sure if people are reading them. The level of feedback we’ve gotten makes me feel really good that people are reading and are really excited about the kinds of [stories] we’re putting out.
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We had Hoka, which is an athletic company, advertise with us, and we got really wonderful photos from healthcare workers who were showing off their [Hoka shoes] while they were in the emergency room, in the ICU, walking around the hospital, and so that’s been really cool to see. Even just the fact that our ads are resonating like that, that typically is unheard of.
What healthcare trends are you most optimistic about?
I think more people are talking about mental health, especially as we’re reaching the endemic stage of Covid, and I think there’s a broader conversation around mental health access and quality. We all know it’s really hard to find therapists and other mental health professionals, but even with the proliferation of apps, there’s now the question around quality. That’s actually a really exciting development, because it’s showing that more people are looking for those mental health services and are either finding them wanting or they’re looking to improve things. The most optimistic thing you can do is ask for change and think people can be better and do better, or systems can do better.
What other healthcare topics are you following?
The one that I’m paying close attention to is obviously abortion access. As we’re talking, we’re in the news cycle around these two concurrent rulings that happened out of Texas and Washington regarding access to medication abortion, and whether or not the FDA approval is going to be valid or not.