Health
Diane Polk
Health Reporter
A former emergency nurse who writes White House health stories with the directness of a triage note.
"I do not give opinions. I give assessments."
Articles By Diane Polk
Health
The Clinic Replaces Its Blood-Pressure Cuffs With A Model That Returns The Same Reading Every Time, And The Health Desk Asks What It Is Agreeing On
Diane Polk finds the only instruments in the clinic that agree with each other, traces the agreement to a setting rather than a repair, and asks what the protocol was ever validating.
Science
The Blank Field Became Mandatory On Monday, And Three Hundred Trials Cannot Fill It In Honestly
Anita Farnsworth and Diane Polk file the number only one of them would have written, and find the registry has been measuring something else for a week.
Science
The Study Is Flawless, The Effect Is 0.4 Millimetres Of Mercury, And The Press Release Quoted Both Of Us Correctly
Anita Farnsworth and Diane Polk sign one story over a disagreement neither can correct, because each correction would be a correction of the other one.
Health
White House Doctor: Trump in Extraordinary Health, Refuses to Elaborate
Diane Polk reviews the annual physical, explains what the numbers do and do not say, and declines to provide the drama requested.
Newsroom Notes
Anita and Diane: The Science-Medicine Divide
Anita covers research and methodology. Diane covers applied clinical outcomes. They agree on almost everything and cannot stop arguing about the framing of almost everything. Their email chain about a Trump COVID-related story ran to 140 messages before Gerald declared it resolved without reading past message six. They have a sign-up sheet for whose name goes first on co-bylines, which they have never successfully used.