April Dembosky
April Dembosky is the health reporter for The California Report and KQED News. She covers health policy and public health, and has reported extensively on the economics of health care, the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in California, mental health and end-of-life issues. Her work is regularly rebroadcast on NPR and has been recognized with awards from the Society for Professional Journalists (for sports reporting), and the Association of Health Care Journalists (for a story about pediatric hospice). Her hour-long radio documentary about home funeralswon the Best New Artist award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2009. April occasionally moonlights on the arts beat, covering music and dance. Her story about the first symphony orchestra at Burning Man won the award for Best Use of Sound from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. Before joining KQED in 2013, April covered technology and Silicon Valley for The Financial Times, and freelanced for Marketplace and The New York Times. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Smith College.
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Even though a disease like measles can spread easily through a workplace, employers often are reluctant to require employee vaccinations. Hospitals are one big exception. -
A play based on interviews with former NFL players, their families and fans digs deep: What's so fun about a sport that devastates bodies and brains? And what if it can't be made safer? -
Getting basic health care to rural areas has always been difficult, and delivering specialized care even harder. One doctor is raising money to bring palliative care to patients in rural California. -
While shoppers rush to the mall to pick up the last neckties and Transformers for Christmas, health officials are trying to pitch them on an unconventional gift this holiday season: health insurance. -
Public health officials in California are trying to understand why Latino babies are contracting whooping cough at much higher rates than other babies. -
Wages and benefits are usually the big sticking points in labor negotiations. But so far both sides are focusing on things like Ebola preparedness, separating patient care from economics. -
Ebola training, staffing and protective gear are bargaining chips as nurses in California hammer out a new contract with Kaiser Permanente. Their requests mirror the concerns of nurses nationwide. -
Proposition 46 tackles painkiller abuse, malpractice caps and mandatory drug and alcohol testing of doctors. Backers say the law would enhance patient safety, but doctors say the cost is too high. -
You'd think that mosquitoes wouldn't like drought, but that's not what's happening in California, where stagnant water breeds more mosquitoes. Cases of West Nile virus have doubled since last year. -
Adding a translation to the English label would require bigger bottles, pharmacists say. They worry patients would wind up carrying a few pills around loose — without any instructions at all.
