I am thrilled to announce that Healthy Debate has been nominated for two Digital Publishing Awards (DPAs). We launched in 2010, but this is the first year we have been recognized on a national stage.
We were nominated for General Excellence in digital publishing, awarded to outlets that fulfil their editorial mandate and represent the highest of journalist standards. We are in good company, with publications like The Local, Canadaland and the Globe and Mail also receiving nods. Staff writer Max Binks-Collier was also recognized for his piece, Saying Goodbye on Facetime, which was part of our AMS series on compassion and health care.
These nominations are personally and symbolically meaningful to me. I took over the helm as Editor-in-Chief in late 2019 and was tasked with redesigning, re-imagining and relaunching the site in a different media landscape than when we started. This was on the eve of the global pandemic, where we would witness in real time misinformation drowning out good quality medical reporting and advice.
We pledged to develop Healthy Debate into a trusted source of health journalism for the public, become an important platform for experts, patients and other stakeholders to write about Canadian health care, and teach medical learners and experts how to report and advocate directly to the public. We published more than 200 pieces in 2021/2022, peaking at one million unique hits a month across our site. We’ve trained over 30 residents and students in health journalism this year. And we are just getting started. These metrics combined with the prestigious DPA nominations mean we are doing something right. We are excited to continue to build this vision and launch some exciting new initiatives in 2022/2023.
Thank you for reading. And please consider supporting our brand of critically important medical journalism.
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