United Kingdom
I write for a living.
A journalist for over 20 years, I've published stories on health, medicine and tech in WHO Bulletin and The Lancet to the Guardian, Health Policy Watch, SciDev.net, BMJ, BBC News and Nature.
I write about health across borders, cutting edge medical research and inequalities and access to medicines and healthcare – from affordable insulin, oxygen and the opioid crisis, to fake news on vaccines and mental health in the COVID-19 era. I interview scientists, policy makers, patients and health workers from Africa to Asia.
I'm a fiction writer too. A finalist in this year's Mslexia Novel Competition, I also won a place on the Hachette Grow Your Story 2022. I have been highly commended for two novels in the BPA First Novel Award 2020 and Peggy Chapman First Novel Award -Bridport Prize 2020.
After finishing an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London I began a PhD in creative writing at Birkbeck. I'm two years in.
You can reach me at tatumnanderson at gmail.com
Below is a small selection of my work.
MODERN, Western medicine tends to pooh-pooh its herbal cousin. It is true that synthetic pharmaceuticals are purer, more reliable and often more effective than herbs. But many of them have herbal origins, and the sight of pharmacists botanising (collecting herbs from the countryside for sale as medicine) was common in Europe within living memory.
After the record-breaking pace of vaccine development, vaccine roll-outs are getting off to a frustratingly slow start. Tatum Anderson reports. Covid-19 vaccines save lives. Kampmann B, Jack SM. Kampmann B, et al. BMJ. 2021 Apr 9;373:n886. doi: 10.1136/bmj.n886. BMJ. 2021. PMID: 33836992 No abstract available.
Binish Desai knows a thing or two about recycling. "Growing up in Valsad (Gujarat, India) I was surrounded by paper mills," he says. "As a by-product of their manufacturing processes, they generated millions of tonnes of this unpleasant grey sludge that was just dumped into landfills."
Q: How did your feminist world view develop? A: I was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda. My dad was a high-ranking, authoritarian police officer but very progressive, very accepting of us, his four daughters. My mum was more traditional.
The psychological repercussions of COVID-19 have engendered multiple ad hoc initiatives and raised awareness of the need for investment in mental health services. Tatum Anderson reports.
Highly Commended for the Peggy Chapman First Novel Award: Tatum Anderson Mengo Baby
The COVID 19 pandemic is exposing an important weakness in health systems: medical oxygen production and delivery. Tatum Anderson reports.
Tatum Anderson Highly Commended for Bad Material
When Rebecca Molubah (not her real name) entered the busy government hospital in Gbarnga, Liberia, to give birth to her second child, she was anxious about her prospects. Having been through the experience eight years earlier, the 32-year-old knew what it was like to give birth without any sort of pain relief.
The shortlisted novels for the Peggy Chapman-Andrews first novel award are: Mengo Baby The Cocklers Dog Helen and the Fires The Silence Project Congratulations to all the writers, who must remain anonymous whilst the judging process continues…
Tatum Anderson is a journalist and writer from London and The Invisibles tells of her time as an inpatient at St Thomas's Hospital.
Tanusree Chaudhuri, 38, was pregnant with her first child when her supervisor told her she would have to give up her dreams. She was doing a doctorate in computational biology and aspired to improve people's health. "He told me 'you are married now, why do you need a PhD?
We are thrilled to announce the First Novel Award 2020 shortlist. This year's judges, literary agents Caroline Wood and Carrie Plitt from Felicity Bryan Agency and best-selling author Anna Hope (Expectation, The Ballroom, Wake), found it difficult to choose six titles from an impressive longlist.
The COVID-19 pandemic has focused attention on the need for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, at least 43 of which are currently in development. After the necessary trials in humans, the hope is that one or more of these candidate vaccines will emerge as a safe and cost-effective response to the pandemic - possibly in the next twelve months.
Feeling ill, but not an emergency case? Increasingly, in big cities at least, there is likely to be an urgent care clinic that can provide rapid access to healthcare for patients who are very unwell, but who are not deemed medical emergencies.
A patient being treated at a Kenyan hospital was nearing the end of her life. Her next of kin requested that she be taken home to the US to die. The insurance company and the medical evacuation company agreed to comply with their wishes, but during the routine wing-to-wing transfer arranged to take her home via Iceland, things began to go wrong.
Patients in Dubai, India, Singapore and, soon, Thailand, can access a primary care physician via a smartphone app. In addition to online consultations and prescribing, the app can manage a blood test or a scan. It can send a phlebotomist to take bloods, a car to take a patient for, say an X-ray, and perhaps in future, provide home diagnostic kits.
Latest on research into psychedelics for the treatment of depression with Professor Erich Seifritz
Tatum Anderson explores healthcare and health insurance in India, where a growing need for high-quality medical care has prompted the growth of private enterprises
Sometimes the vials are filled with dirty water. Occasionally they contain saline and a tiny amount of antibiotic, so as not to infect the site of the vaccination and draw attention to its true ingredients. But however good or bad the disguise, the fact is that these "vaccines" will actually have no effect at all.
Latest on research into drug discovery for insomnia
Tatum Anderson talks to assistance doctors around the world to find out what an average day might look like for them
Eric Barthélémy-Maviel, Head of Operations and International Networks at Europ Assistance in Spain, noted that with such a well-established tourism industry, Spain is a destination that has attracted international patients for more than 50 years. He said that, today, there is a high demand from international visitors for eye surgery, organ transplants, fertility procedures, and plastic and cosmetic surgery.
Coverage of the 2019 CINP International Meeting - Athens, Greece
Despite a massive worldwide push to improve access to contraceptives, generic manufacturers say they're not yet getting a good share of the pie. The use of family-planning products has rocketed in recent years, as more women around the world - especially in low and middle-income countries - choose to have smaller families.
Hepatitis C Buyers' Clubs Grow Worldwide As A Way To Obtain Affordable Treatment Hidden amongst the thousands of Facebook pages given over to holiday snaps and gossip are groups of patients who have hepatitis C, a disease that affects more than 70 million worldwide and kills around 400,000 people a year.
The first biosimilar of the blockbuster breast cancer drug trastuzumab is being prepared for launch in United States, following a decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve it earlier this month. The product, Ogivri, has been created by a joint venture between US Mylan and Indian company Biocon.
Innovative Financing: New Health Bonds Tested For Impact Hospitals in the Indian state of Rajasthan will be assessed next month to gauge whether upgrades, paid for with a new international innovative financing model, have brought them up to the new government quality standards.
Political Views And Vaccine Refusal Rates An Increasing Concern For Policymakers And Public Health Officials Or they should be. That's the conclusion of a recent study published in the medical journal Vaccine. The study focused on political views of parents in the state of California, who had chosen not to vaccinate their nursery-school aged children.
The public health response to false information about vaccines can sometimes backfire. A series of workshops aims to help public health officials in Europe meet the challenge. Tatum Anderson reports
Courtesy of Christian Ntizimira Christian Ntizimira is a Masters Candidate at Harvard Medical School, department of Global Health and Social Medicine and the executive secretary of the Rwanda Palliative Care and Hospice Organisation. This year he became World Cancer Congress Regional Lead, Africa, for the Union for International Cancer Control.
With only five years to go, the millennium development goals to reduce maternal and child mortality remain a long way off target. Tatum Anderson looks at the problems A decade ago world leaders identified deaths of women in childbirth and of children under the age of 5 years as two of eight key problems that must be tackled in order to lift millions out of extreme poverty by 2015.
The first biosimilar of the blockbuster breast cancer drug trastuzumab is being prepared for launch in United States, following a decision by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve it earlier this month. The product, Ogivri, has been created by a joint venture between US Mylan and Indian company Biocon.
A case at the High Court in India set for 15 December could decide whether a patent on some of the most important drugs to fight hepatitis C should be removed. It is one of many attempts to challenge patents on hepatitis C drugs in various countries around the world and serves as an opportunity to learn more about the group leading the legal case.
Access to powerful painkillers, usually based on opioid substances, is a crucial part of progress towards tackling NCDs, according to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), a UN quasi-judicial body that is concerned with enforcing three global drug control conventions.
Open-source drug development involves open data sharing, collaboration, and results sharing. The aim is to produce new drugs for neglected diseases. But can it work? Tatum Anderson reports.
Cancer advocates plan to broker deals with drug companies to get cheaper, more plentiful supplies of pain relief drugs to patients in developing countries using models pioneered in the field of HIV/AIDS. The plans form part of the Global Access to Pain Relief Initiative (GAPRI), a strategy launched at the World Cancer Congress, in China on 19 August.
Governments are considering which financial incentives will be the best to boost research and development for much needed new antibiotic drugs. Tatum Anderson reports.
Thousands of medical treatments contained in these texts are used extensively in India, particularly in rural areas. The texts are trusted by patients because they were written by doctors with extensive clinical practice thousands of years ago and have been tested by centuries of use, says Dr Sonika Verma, an Ayuverdic doctor at CSIR. Reporting from India
Swiss drug firm Novartis has been accused of abusing an award system designed to encourage innovation for diseases that mainly affect developing countries. Tatum Anderson reports.
MODERN, Western medicine tends to pooh-pooh its herbal cousin. It is true that synthetic pharmaceuticals are purer, more reliable and often more effective than herbs. But many of them have herbal origins, and the sight of pharmacists botanising (collecting herbs from the countryside for sale as medicine) was common in Europe within living memory.
In the shadow of Mount Kenya, traditional healer Jack Githae enters what he describes as his 'natural pharmacy'. It's a dense area of bush where elephants occasionally wander packed with a range of plants and trees from the African olive to the prickly euphorbia.
Major pharmaceutical companies are often happy to donate their medicines for free to the developing world, but that might mean they are getting off cheaply in meeting their social obligations, while still charging high prices for patented drugs, Tatum Anderson reports
Pain relief is often taken for granted in the Western world, but in about 150 countries the use of morphine is severely restricted. Tatum Anderson investigates how this has come about, and what steps are being taken to stop patients living and dying in extreme pain.
Countries are beginning to notice an increase in Chinese citizens looking for healthcare services abroad, as Tatum Anderson reports Around 483,000 people travelled from China for medical tourism in 2015, spending US$6.3 billion on treatment and US$3.4 billion on related travel and accommodation, according to ChinaMediworld.com.
HepC medical tourism. What you do get when you cross a millionaire Argentinian football star, Egyptian pyramids, a government department and a pharmaceutical company? The launch of a medical tourism campaign, of course. At least that's what happened earlier this year when international soccer superstar Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona and the Argentinian national football team visited Egypt to promote the launch of Tour n' Cure, a medical tourism initiative.
Several campaigns and initiatives are underway in Europe and the USA by doctors hoping to improve services and care for patients with chronic pain. Tatum Anderson reports.
News: Business A plant in Uganda hopes to sell cut-price drugs by taking advantage of exemptions from rules that protect patents. But its operators face major obstacles, as Tatum Anderson reports. President Yoweri Museveni gives a thumbs up to Uganda's latest drug venture.
Rip the top off a small sachet, the size of a hand, and inside is a delicious, creamy peanut goo that you suck from the packet. It is messy and delicious. And it has already saved the lives of countless children on the brink of death from starvation around the world. Reporting from Kenya
In the shadow of Mount Kenya, traditional healer Jack Githae enters what he describes as his 'natural pharmacy'. It's a dense area of bush where elephants occasionally wander packed with a range of plants and trees from the African olive to the prickly euphorbia.
Reporting from Burkina Faso. Longlisted for the Guardian International Development Journalism Competition
A charity is to raise £50million for vaccines in undeveloped countries by approaching the financial markets. The International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm) will be issuing a bond via HSBC to raise the sum. The bond will be redeemed after five years at which point it will also pay out a one-off coupon of 16.2%.
Those of a nervous disposition may want to look away: dentists are learning how to replace missing teeth by correspondence course. They, like doctors and veterinarians, are among a growing band of "hands-on" professionals around the world obtaining distance-learning qualifications from Britain's universities.
This is the fourth edition of the Rough Guide's Women Travel anthology, and it weighs in now at 700 pages, with stories and reports from more than 60 countries, written by some 80 women. The route is simple, running alphabetically from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, so readers dipping in and out of the book can choose the country whose window they wish to look through.
by for Intellectual Property Watch The problem of fake medicines is a big one. But precisely how big? The problem is, when reporting numbers, news stories, reports and institutions have historically bundled the different kinds of medicines together, says an expert at the WHO. Available only for IP-Watch Subscribers.
Major pharmaceutical companies are often happy to donate their medicines for free to the developing world, but that might mean they are getting off cheaply in meeting their social obligations, while still charging high prices for patented drugs, Tatum Anderson reports
For the people in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, a new meningitis vaccine offers hope of an escape from one of the world's deadliest, most disabling and infectious diseases. So there is little wonder that the queues were enormous when a pilot project for the MenAfriVac vaccine got underway in the three West African countries in recent weeks.
Tatum Anderson investigates how a new bill from the Ministries of Health and Tourism seeks to improve treatment for Israeli patients It's not just the world-famous therapeutic spas on the Dead Sea, or even the promise of post-treatment trips to biblical sites that have made Israel one of the world's most popular medical tourism destinations.
Despite a massive worldwide push to improve access to contraceptives, generic manufacturers say they're not yet getting a good share of the pie. The use of family-planning products has rocketed in recent years, as more women around the world - especially in low and middle-income countries - choose to have smaller families.
by for Intellectual Property Watch An African medicines agency, the continent's first super-regulator, could be approved as soon as next year. Available only for IP-Watch Subscribers. Please login or subscribe to read the full story. Tatum Anderson may be reached at [email protected] "Enter The African Medicines Agency, Continent's First Super-Regulator?"
by for Intellectual Property Watch With the looming threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), there is growing pressure to use vaccines because they obviate the need to prescribe antibiotics in the first place. Available only for IP-Watch Subscribers. Please login or subscribe to read the full story. Tatum Anderson may be reached at [email protected]
The WHO last week announced plans to explore options for prequalifying insulin, a process that already assesses the quality, safety and efficacy of medicinal products, such as tuberculosis and malaria drugs. The WHO is considering whether to extend the prequalification process to manufacturers creating me-too versions of insulins, more commonly known as biosimilars.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), a group of conditions that can result in heart attacks and strokes, is the world's number one killer, accounting for one-third of deaths throughout the world, according to research released recently (17 May) by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.
A look into centres of medical excellence opening ‘outposts’ in different countries
13 October 2016 Tatum Anderson looks at global efforts to enhance hospital pricing transparency In March this year, a group of 11 organisations - including one that represents US pensioners - wrote to the US National Institutes of Health, asking why a late-stage prostate cancer drug costs as much as four times more in the US than it does elsewhere.
by for Intellectual Property Watch Bangalore-based Biocon may become the first Indian company to offer a biosimilar insulin in Europe. And the patent and pricing story is interesting. Available only for IP-Watch Subscribers. Please login or subscribe to read the full story. Tatum Anderson may be reached at [email protected]
The wooden summerhouse at Ristinge in the south-west was simple and homely, with a maze of small rooms. But no one spent much time inside, apart from to sleep and prepare food. Outside, a garden of evergreens and rosehip bushes led to a beach just a minute's walk away; two hours from Copenhagen, we were lying on white sand.
The term "Open" in science is all the rage these days. The Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) has posted a Malaria Box, containing over 400 compounds that might be effective against malaria to almost 200 research groups in two years.
Article 58, a process introduced by the European Commission to help speed up the time low and middle-income countries take to approve new drugs, could be in for a massive overhaul. A revamp has been proposed because it is underused - just a handful of products have gone through the Article 58 process since its launch in 2004.