Miriam E. Tucker
Miriam E. Tucker is a freelance journalist specializing in medicine and health and a regular contributor to Medscape Medical News, where she focuses on diabetes, endocrinology, and related metabolic conditions. Her reporting tracks how new evidence, drugs, devices, and policies affect everyday clinical practice rather than treating them as abstract research stories. Across work for Medscape and other health outlets, she returns to the questions of what emerging data actually mean for screening, treatment decisions, and patient safety. Her body of work is distinguished by close attention to clinical trials and real-world studies, read through the lens of practical implications for clinicians.
Diabetes and Metabolic Health
Diabetes and its complications sit at the core of Tucker’s reporting for Medscape.
She covers type 2 diabetes across the spectrum from prediabetes detection to long-term complications, including pieces on how Medicare coverage of A1c testing has changed identification of prediabetes. Her work examines cardiometabolic risk in detail, such as coverage of “metabolically healthy obesity,” where she reports that this phenotype is increasing but remains uncommon, underscoring the ongoing risk associated with excess weight.
She writes on sex-specific aspects of metabolic disease, including reporting that menopausal symptoms are more severe in women with type 2 diabetes, highlighting intersections between hormonal changes and glycemic control.
Tucker also follows the continuity of care in diabetes, including transition points that often challenge patients and clinicians.
Her coverage of a consensus statement on proactive pediatric–adult diabetes care handoffs shows her focus on system-level changes needed to maintain glycemic control and psychosocial support as young people move into adult services. In meeting coverage for Medscape, she reports on population screening for type 1 diabetes, diabetes distress, and emerging therapies, reflecting a broad grasp of both biological and psychological dimensions of the disease. She often anchors her pieces in specific study data or guidelines, then draws out what those numbers mean for practice, such as how smoking cessation guidance is evolving for people with diabetes.
Obesity, GLP-1 Therapies, and Weight Management
A recurring strand in Tucker’s work is the intersection of obesity, weight management, and modern incretin-based therapies.
She has reported on real-world semaglutide use, emphasizing that weight loss achieved outside trials commonly falls below the levels seen in randomized studies, a nuance that matters for expectations and counseling. Her coverage connects these outcomes to wider debates about obesity phenotypes, drawing on concepts like metabolically healthy obesity to show that weight and metabolic risk do not always align neatly.
In pieces on weekly basal insulin plus semaglutide combinations for type 2 diabetes, she highlights how new regimens can simplify treatment while affecting both glycemic control and body weight.
Her beat extends beyond glycemia to the broader physiological impact of GLP-1–based drugs. In reporting on GLP-1 therapies and male fertility, she examines evidence on whether these widely used agents harm or help reproductive parameters, treating fertility outcomes as part of the total risk–benefit picture rather than a side issue. She situates new findings within the rapid expansion of GLP-1 use for obesity and diabetes, making clear how emerging signals could influence prescribing in populations concerned about fertility.
Across these stories, she is careful to distinguish trial results from observational data and to convey both promise and limits without overstatement.
Diabetes Technology, Policy, and Safety
Tucker devotes significant coverage to diabetes technology and its consequences for safety and access. Her reporting on the FDA clearance of a new insulin patch pump from Beta Bionics traces how device innovations aim to ease day-to-day management for people with diabetes while raising questions about integration into existing care pathways. She writes about over-the-counter continuous glucose monitors for children, exploring whether easier access for families aligns with clinical guidance and what safeguards are needed for appropriate use.
In an investigation of hepatitis B transmission via shared glucometers in a care facility, she goes deep into infection-control lapses, showing how routine diabetes tools can become vectors for serious harm if protocols fail.
Policy and guideline shifts are another consistent focus.
Tucker’s coverage of Medicare A1c testing policy explains how reimbursement changes affect screening rates and the detection of prediabetes, linking financial structures directly to population-level health outcomes. She reports on new guidance for smoking cessation in people with diabetes, detailing how recommendations are being refined to address combined cardiovascular and metabolic risks. In work on chronic fatigue syndrome and graded exercise therapy, she summarizes a review finding no reliable evidence for benefit and notes that updated US and UK guidelines now advise against this approach, illustrating her attention to how evolving evidence can reverse entrenched practices.
Across these policy and safety pieces, she often reports from FDA developments and major diabetes meetings such as the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, connecting regulatory decisions, conference data, and front-line care into a coherent narrative for clinicians.
Beyond Medscape, Tucker’s health reporting has appeared in outlets including the Washington Post, NPR’s Shots blog, Diabetes Forecast, the British Medical Journal, and diaTribe. She brings the same evidence-focused, clinician-oriented framing to those platforms, making her coverage a reference point for readers seeking clear explanations of complex metabolic research and policy developments.
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.