Rae Ellen Bichell
Rae Ellen Bichell is a reporter for NPR's Science Desk. She first came to NPR in 2013 as a Kroc fellow and has since reported Web and radio stories on biomedical research, global health, and basic science. She won a 2016 Michael E. DeBakey Journalism Award from the Foundation for Biomedical Research. After graduating from Yale University, she spent two years in Helsinki, Finland, as a freelance reporter and Fulbright grantee.
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The health care industry is obsessed with consumer satisfaction. But national patient surveys still don't get at an important question: Are hospitals delivering culturally competent care? -
With kids back in school, business is picking back up for professional delousers. But how are kids getting head lice if they're physically distancing in the classroom? -
Obstetrical emergency departments are a new aspect of some hospitals that can inflate medical bills for even the easiest, healthiest births. Just ask baby Gus' parents about their $2,755 ER charge. -
The CDC sent in a team to investigate a delta variant hotspot in Mesa County, Colo. That didn't stop tens of thousands of people from flocking to the state's largest country music festival. -
A college student never learned the cause of intense pain that drove her to an ER, but her bill totaled $18,735.93. She and her mom, a nurse practitioner, were outraged after dissecting the charges. -
Support for this story, reported in early 2020, came from The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit news organization that partners with... -
A regional public health department had been going strong since the 1960s. Then, the pandemic hit. Now, it's on the brink of divorce. -
Winter is coming, and that means outdoor socializing is about to get harder. Health officials in other countries have endorsed something called a “social bubble,” also known as a “pandemic pod,” or “quaranteam.” An epidemiologist shares some tips on how to start one. -
Antigen testing is starting to become a more common way to test for COVID-19. It looks for the virus’ surface coating, rather than pieces of its genetic material. It’s faster and easier to administer than other tests. Public health experts say it’s important to collect all results — positive and negative — to understand the scale of each state’s outbreak. -
Japanese health officials claim their different approach to contract tracing is one of the “secrets” to their early success in containing COVID-19. But what is so-called "retrospective contact tracing"?
