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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An analysis of 16 recent medical guidelines found evidence of financial ties between key experts and industry. Most of the recommendations expanded the definitions of common illnesses, lowering the threshold for treatment. -
Sometimes the condition a doctor labels as cancer isn't much of a health threat. Some cancer specialists are now looking at whether it's time to rethink what gets called cancer to lower anxiety and cut waste.
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Even though most people don't want to live radically longer lives, they figure their neighbors do. A majority say they aren't interested in medical treatments that would let them live to see 120. But more than two-thirds of people polled by the Pew Research Center say others probably would.
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Doctors in states where corruption is more common appear more likely to be influenced by drug company payments than those in states with fewer corruption-related crimes. Male doctors, overall, appear more likely to be swayed by drug industry payments than their female colleagues. -
Health care providers are fighting a Florida law that would ban them from asking patients about the presence of guns in the home. In an NPR poll, a third of Americans agree with those doctors, while 44 percent support such measures, despite the health risks guns carry. -
More than half of health-related websites checked by a health policy researcher used trackers that could provide data about visitors to third parties. Some also shared search terms that could be linked to a visitor. -
The Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. attorney's office in Colorado cracked down on more than 1,600 websites that the feds say are breaking the law in the way they're selling prescription drugs, some of them counterfeits. -
There have been nagging questions about whether nitrous oxide during surgery raises the risk of heart attacks and other problems. Now, there's some reassurance, though no definitive answer, from a study that looked at the widely used anesthetic. -
The American Medical Association still has a considerable bully pulpit. And the group's vote Tuesday could give more oomph to efforts to have obesity interventions paid for by insurers and to get the public focused on the problem. -
Dr. Judith Salerno, a geriatrician, is replacing Nancy Brinker, the cancer philanthropy's founder and longtime chief executive. The change comes more than a year and a half after a decision to halt grants to Planned Parenthood plunged the group into controversy.
