Scott Hensley
Scott Hensley edits stories about health, biomedical research and pharmaceuticals for NPR's Science desk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has led the desk's reporting on the development of vaccines against the coronavirus.
Hensley has worked on award-winning investigations in collaboration with journalistic partners.
He was the lead NPR editor on an investigation with the Center for Public Integrity in 2018 that exposed drug industry influence on the choices of preferred medicines by Medicaid programs. The work won the 2019 Gerald Loeb Award for audio reporting.
In 2017, Hensley was the lead NPR editor on an investigation with Kaiser Health News that showed how the pharmaceutical industry exploits government incentives intended to encourage the development of treatments for rare diseases. The stories won the 2019 digital award from the National Institute for Health Care Management.
Hensley has been editing in his current role since 2019. He joined NPR in 2009 to launch Shots, a blog that expanded to become a digital destination for NPR health coverage.
Before NPR, Hensley was a reporter and editor at The Wall Street Journal. He was the founding editor of The Wall Street Journal Health Blog, which focused on the intersection of health and business. As a reporter, he covered the drug industry and the Human Genome Project.
Hensley served on the board of the Association of Health Care Journalists from 2012 to 2020.
He has a bachelor's degree in natural sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a master's in journalism from Columbia University.
Before becoming a journalist, Hensley worked in the medical device industry. He remains, now and forever, a lover of Dobermans, lacrosse and Callinectes sapidus.
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Doctors and patients are trying to balance the need for pain relief and the potential for trouble. In an NPR poll, addiction and side effects were the top concerns. -
When you rent a bike, you usually have to bring your own helmet or go without one. If you ride with your hair flapping in the breeze, your risk for a brain injury goes up.
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Now that it's clear that camels can infect humans with Middle East respiratory syndrome, Saudi Arabian officials are expanding testing of the animals in the country. -
The Food and Drug Administration's approval of a new drug for leishmaniasis came with a voucher that can be redeemed to speed up the approval of a much more lucrative drug in the future. -
Bayer has announced it is buying Merck's consumer drugs business, and Pfizer is trying to take over AstraZeneca. Why is this reorganization happening now, and what does it mean for drug development?
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Massachusetts is the latest state that was gung-ho on health care overhaul to concede it had failed to make it easy for people to enroll. Oregon and Maryland also scrapped their online exchanges. -
Pfizer, founded in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1849, would become a British company by combining with AstraZeneca. The new company would get a much lower tax rate by moving its legal headquarters overseas. -
Sovaldi has been found to be remarkably effective in curing most patients with common forms of hepatitis C in a matter of months. But the clinical success comes at a high price. -
As infectious diseases come under control in Africa, other illnesses common in the West are becoming problems. GlaxoSmithKline is opening a research lab to promote research by African scientists. -
The dolls get sick on cue and come with a medical kit that can relieve their symptoms. But the electronics inside the dolls can get hot enough to cause blisters or burns.
