Cole Brennan
Cole Brennan covers health stories for Town and Country Today, focusing on how specific services and programs translate into care for residents. Their work highlights the practical side of health delivery, particularly when new initiatives change where and how people access care. The coverage centres on concrete developments rather than broad policy debate, keeping attention on what will happen for patients and communities.
Community health services and access
Brennan’s reporting on the mobile mammogram service coming to Athabasca shows an interest in how diagnostic care reaches people outside major centres. The story follows the introduction of a specific service and explains what it means for residents who need breast cancer screening but do not have easy access to permanent facilities. By staying close to the details of a single program, Brennan gives readers a clear picture of how health services are organised and what changes on the ground.
Preventive care and service rollout
The mobile mammogram coverage also reflects a focus on preventive care. Brennan treats screening not as an abstract issue but as a scheduled, staffed, mobile clinic that must be planned and communicated clearly. The reporting concentrates on timelines, the nature of the service, and who it is intended to serve, showing how early detection is built into everyday health provision.
This approach suits stories where the key question is when and where people can use a new service.
Straightforward, service-oriented coverage
Across this health beat, Brennan’s work is service-oriented, with stories built around specific programs rather than opinion or commentary. The writing keeps to plain, direct language and focuses on what a development means for patients and families, such as increased access to screening or changes in how care is delivered.
Communications around health initiatives that are concrete, operational, and aimed at improving access align well with this style of reporting.
4 more health journalists.
Alanna Smith
Alanna Smith is a national health reporter whose work links health policy and politics to real access to care, with a constant focus on health equity, infectious disease and the toxic drug crisis. She reports for The Globe and Mail on infectious diseases, hospitals and long-term care, mental health, drug policy and the pressures on health systems in Western Canada. Her stories connect big-picture decisions to patients, families, front-line workers and volunteers, showing how funding, privatization and federal standards shape public care. She has covered trauma care inequities, proposed public‑private models in Alberta, drug toxicity and overdose policy, respiratory virus surges, measles elimination, gene‑editing advances and gender‑affirming health care laws. Her work combines narrative reporting, data, legal and policy analysis, and has been recognized by national journalism and press freedom organizations.
Allan Levine
Allan Levine is a historian and author whose journalism uses the past to explain present-day issues. He writes for the Winnipeg Free Press, including the Now & Then column, which examines current events through history. His subjects include public health, disease, medical treatment, health systems, politics, social conflict, strikes, wars, antisemitism and Canadian public life. His polio reporting traces Manitoba epidemics, hospital pressures, treatment, mortality and the arrival of vaccines through archival data and medical history. He also writes about the Winnipeg General Strike and Jewish communities, including discrimination, rights and security. His work draws on books about Canadian political leaders, Jewish history and the wartime economy, including The Dollar A Year Men. He writes long-form, analytical pieces that combine dates, statistics, policy decisions and narrative storytelling to connect people and institutions with broader historical change.
Angela Amato
Angela Amato is a digital news producer with CTV News, and her coverage is distinct for linking health research and public safety concerns to legal and policy decisions that shape daily life. She reports on health, justice, politics, business, arts and culture, crime and public-interest stories. Her health work covers academic and clinical research, including studies on vaping and lung blood flow, exercise tolerance and early heart dysfunction in young adults. She also reports on motorcycle gang arrests, homicide and death investigations, Indigenous justice stories, wildfire evacuations, ambulance contracts, property taxes, labour negotiations and political advocacy rules. She explains complex findings in plain language and stays close to documents, data and expert sources. Her background includes investigative and daily newsrooms, and she has earned nominations for national journalism awards.
Apoorva Mandavilli
Apoorva Mandavilli covers the collision of infectious disease science, vaccine policy and public health agencies for The New York Times, following how research, regulation and politics shape outbreaks and access to vaccines. She reports on science and global health with a steady focus on infectious diseases and pandemics, including Covid-19, mpox, H.I.V., malaria and tuberculosis, treating them as ongoing global threats. Her work explains complex epidemiology and virology in clear narratives about risk, evidence and the consequences of scientific decisions. She repeatedly returns to vaccine policy, law and misinformation, tracing how court fights and agency disputes affect immunization schedules and public trust. She also reports on global health programs, funding cuts and inequity in care and technology. A longtime science journalist and former founding editor in chief of Spectrum, she has written widely on science and health and received major honors for medical science reporting and pandemic coverage.