Caroline Chen
Caroline Chen was a national reporter for ProPublica covering health care.
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Caroline Chen previously covered health care for ProPublica. She has written about public health, hospitals, drugmakers and clinical trials, highlighting disparities in patient access, broken funding models and abuses of power.
Her 2020 coverage of the coronavirus pandemic included investigations into the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s early failures to contain the outbreak, vaccine inequities and distortion of COVID-19 data. Her work was part of ProPublica’s coverage recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service.
Her 2019 stories on a heart transplant program in New Jersey that prioritized metrics over patient care won the Livingston Award for local reporting. Her story on racial disparities in cancer clinical trials with Riley Wong in 2018 won the June L. Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism in online/multimedia reporting.
Her writing has appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and NPR. Previously, she worked at Bloomberg News, where her coverage included the unraveling of blood test maker Theranos and the 2014 Ebola outbreak. She received her master’s degree from the Toni Stabile Program for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University, where she was awarded a Pulitzer traveling fellowship.
House Democrats Probe Faulty Test Kits’ Role in Delaying Coronavirus Response
The House Oversight Committee cited ProPublica’s reporting in requesting documents from the Trump administration.
U.S. Hospitals Say They’re Ready for Coronavirus. Their Infection Control Violations Say Otherwise.
An outbreak would demand peak performance from America’s medical professionals — especially in hospitals. But many of the facilities that may be on the front lines have well-documented histories of failing to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.
We Want to Talk to People Working, Living and Grieving on the Front Lines of the Coronavirus. Help Us Report.
Are you a public health worker, medical provider, elected official, patient or other COVID-19 expert? We’re looking for information and sources. Help make sure our journalism is responsible and focused on the right issues.
Key Missteps at the CDC Have Set Back Its Ability to Detect the Potential Spread of Coronavirus
The CDC designed a flawed test for COVID-19, then took weeks to figure out a fix so state and local labs could use it. New York still doesn’t trust the test’s accuracy.
Federal Regulators: Newark Beth Israel Put Patients in “Immediate Jeopardy”
The New Jersey hospital is taking corrective action after a government investigation spurred by ProPublica’s reporting found that its transplant team was failing to learn from surgical errors.
Students! ProPublica Wants to Pay for You to Attend a Conference in 2020
We’re giving away 20 scholarships to help students attend journalism conferences like NABJ-NAHJ, ONA and IRE. Apply!
The Family Wanted a Do Not Resuscitate Order. The Doctors Didn’t.
Andy Jurtschenko told his children that he didn’t want to be a burden on them. But after he suffered brain damage during a heart transplant at a New Jersey hospital, his medical team deflected their request for a DNR.
FBI Investigating Newark Beth Israel’s Transplant Program for Possible Fraud
The bureau is looking at whether the hospital may have defrauded Medicare and Medicaid as it kept a vegetative patient on life support for the sake of its metrics.
Doctor Who Advocated “Unethical” Care of Vegetative Patient Is Placed on Leave
Newark Beth Israel acted after our report that its transplant program kept a patient alive to improve its metrics, while barely consulting his family.
Feds to Investigate Hospital Alleged to Have Kept Vegetative Patient Alive to Game Transplant Survival Rates
Spurred by a ProPublica investigation, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will also carry out an inquiry.