Over the past year, the Investigative Clinic at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY has been researching mental health challenges among medical students, residents, and fellows in the United States. Learn more about our work and who we are below.
For years, medical students, residents, and physician activists have argued that the U.S. medical training system involves extreme pressures and labor conditions that endanger the mental health of the industry’s most vulnerable members.
We are investigating the unique pressures of that system. As part of our work, we have built a confidential database of suicides among medical students, residents, and fellows in the U.S. from 2010 to the present, which experts have repeatedly warned is going untracked. While suicide is a complex phenomenon, we are studying some of the factors that are most prevalent among these deaths, investigating the relationship between the medical training system and suicide, and telling stories that help shine light on a reality often shrouded in secrecy.
We work to meet the highest standards of journalistic ethics. Meaningful consent, a respect for individual privacy, and sensitive interviewing techniques are paramount to our work. We work to verify information through a rigorous reporting process we have honed over the last year. In verified incidents, we contact loved ones, friends, and colleagues for in-depth interviews, and submit open records requests for supporting documents. We are paying close attention to a range of issues, including race, gender identity, citizenship, and other factors, with individual reporters pursuing these subjects as assigned sub-beats.
OUR Reporters & BEATS
Dying To Heal
Help us investigate suicide among medical students and physicians in training
Tell Us Your Story
Have you trained to be a physician in the United States?
We want to hear from you.