Who will win in 2025? RSVP for the awards ceremony to help us celebrate excellence in health journalism
The Medical Journalists’ Association Awards shine a spotlight on the very best in health and medical journalism — and our 2025 shortlists prove there’s plenty to applaud. We recognise the outstanding skill and dedication of the hundreds of journalists who entered this year, giving our judging panels an exceptionally challenging task.
Well done to all our finalists. Earning a place on the shortlist in such a competitive year is an achievement in itself.
In each category, independent judging panels carefully assess the entries to create their own shortlists. These are then combined into the official category shortlist. On judging day — whether in person or via video conference — all judges for that category come together to debate, deliberate, and select the winners.
This year’s winners will be announced at the MJA Awards Ceremony on September 17, 2025, at the News Building (17th Floor), 1 London Bridge St, London SE1 9GF. All finalists, members, judges, and sponsors are warmly invited to join the celebrations — but please remember that booking is essential.
Click here to view the ceremony invitation and secure your place
One finalist will also be honoured with our Outstanding Contribution Award — the ultimate recognition for exceptional work — chosen by a majority vote from our full panel of independent judges. The MJA Executive Committee plays no role in the judging process. To ensure fairness, EC members are welcome to enter the Awards, but if they do, they take no part in any related decisions.
NB: Links are provided to finalists work where they submitted their entry as a link, for those submitting by file (generally because work is behind a paywall) permission is being sought for accessible links and/or to link to a file
The Medical Journalists’ Association Awards 2025: Finalists
Case Study of the Year
Jessica Hamzelou
MIT Technology Review: Motor neuron diseases took their voices. AI is bringing them back.
Ashish Joshi, Alice Udale-Smith
Sky News: Infected Blood Inquiry: Will the victims finally get justice?
Poppy Koronka
The Times: ‘I want to be an example showing why we deserve the right to die’
Shaun Lintern
The Sunday Times: My schizophrenic son killed his father. We speak every day
Ben Spencer
The Sunday Times: My sister went to Dignitas at 58. She didn’t want to die like Mum did
Rebecca Thomas, Victoria Macdonald, Gracie Jones
The Dr Delvin Award for Sex and Sexual Health Journalism – supported by Christine Webber
David Cox
WIRED: This New Drug Could Help End the HIV Epidemic—but US Funding Cuts Are Killing Its Rollout
Eleanor Hayward
The Times: TikTok misinformation turns women away from contraceptive pill
Noel Titheradge
BBC News website: Doctors didn’t warn women of ‘risky sex’ drug urges
Editor of the Year – supported by ABPI
Entrants submitted three pieces of work
James Halliwell
C+D: ‘It terrifies me’: Girl landed in A&E after buying Wegovy from Boots
C+D: Rishi Sunak: ’Pharmacies are the lifeblood of our communities – Labour has no plan’
C+D: Editor’s Opinion: Darzi’s deja-review is the opposite of what’s required
Jennifer Richardson
Bmj.com: Food industry has infiltrated UK children’s education: stealth marketing exposed
Fiona Walker
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism: The new snake oil: antivenoms that are as useless as water
Feature of the Year (broadcast) – supported by Blue Lozenge
Carolyn Atkinson. Ben Robinson and Carl Johnston
BBC Radio 4 ‘File on 4 Investigates’: ‘Locked Up’
Robbie Boyd, Eamonn Matthews, Joanna Potts, Steven Grandison, Ian Bendelow, Sophie Borland and Katie O’Toole
Channel 4 Dispatches: Undercover A&E: NHS in Crisis
Patrick Russell, Cree-Summer Haughton, Eloise Swinton, Hattie Hamilton, Matt Williams, Ed Saunt
ITV X: Britain’s Backstreet Surgery Scandal
Feature of the Year (general audience) – supported by Genolier Patient Services
Andrew Gregory
The Guardian: Exclusive: Ambulance crews stuck at A&E miss thousands of 999 calls a day in England
Natasha Loder
The Economist: GLP-1s like Ozempic are among the most important drug breakthroughs ever
Warren Manger
Sunday Mirror: Mum who donated daughter’s heart hears it beat again in transplant patient
Adele Waters
The Daily Mail: The ‘barbaric’ procedure that leaves women traumatised, in agony and no longer wanting to have sex
Tom Whipple
The Times: Carol Jennings was the teacher….
Feature of the Year (specialist audience) – supported by Doctor’s Association UK
Simar Bajaj
Nature: The World Was on Track To End the Aids Epidemic. Then Came Trump
Jessica Hamzelou
MIT Technology Review: A strange kind of limbo
Margaret McCartney, Deborah Cohen
Freelance of the Year – supported by Pharma Nord
Entrants submitted three pieces of work for judging
Anjana Ahuja
Financial Times: Questions behind the Ozempic baby boom
Financial Times: On assisted dying, are we really any good at predicting survival?
Financial Times: Rising rates of cancer in young people prompt hunt for environmental culprit
Simar Bajaj
The Guardian: He was shot in the throat. Now he saves gun victims as a trauma surgeon in Baltimore
MIT Technology Review: This AI-powered “black box” could make surgery safer
Nature: How students and grandparents could solve the global mental-health crisis
Jacqui Thornton
The Lancet: “Silent but deadly”: NCDs in sub-Saharan Africa
Nature: Why a silly-sounding name suits the serious mission of our biotech spinoff
BMJ: David Brown: virologist who developed saliva testing for rubella and measles and led the virus reference department for the Health Protection Agency for almost two decades
Adele Waters
Daily Mail: Revealed: The ‘barbaric’ procedure that leaves women traumatised, in agony and no longer wanting to have sex
The BMJ: Doctor suicide: “All I could see were tasks mounting, appointments being booked, and people constantly knocking on my door”
Daily Mail: Exposed: The sexual assault epidemic in NHS hospitals with 33 rapes and assaults every WEEK. Here, women tell their harrowing stories…
The Gordon McVie Award for Reporting Cancer Research – supported by Claudia McVie
Liam Drew
Nature Outlook: Faecal transplants can treat some cancers — but probably won’t ever be widely used
Rosie Taylor
Daily Mail: Which European nation tackles cancer the best – and what can we learn from them?
Clare Wilson
The i Paper: What the cervical cancer vaccine success could mean for the future of smear tests
Health and Climate Change Award – supported by Haleon
Hristio Boytchev, Natalie Widmann and Simon Wörpel
The BMJ: How much does the fossil fuel industry fund medical research?
Michael Peel, Ian Bott, Steven Bernard and Charlie Bibby
Financial Times: The race against time to defeat mosquito-borne diseases
Adele Waters
Mental Health Story of the Year
Andrew Gregory
The Guardian: Exclusive: NHS referrals for anxiety in children more than double pre-Covid levels
Chloe Hayward, Hugh Pym
BBC Breakfast / BBC News Online: NHS billions wasted as Bipolar patients left ‘forgotten and failed’
Shaun Lintern
The Sunday Times: 233 killings: innocent victims of the collapse in mental health care
Nick Triggle
BBC News website: Child mental health crisis: Is better resilience the solution?
Adele Waters
BMJ: Doctor suicide: “All I could see were tasks mounting, appointments being booked, and people constantly knocking on my door”
Newcomer of the Year
Rebecca Barry
ITV News: Mother fears son will ‘become another Valdo Calocane’ without mental health care
Lilia Sebouai
Zoe Tidman
Health Service Journal: Revealed: the ongoing impact of delays to ‘new hospital’ schemes
News Story of the Year (broadcast) – supported by Virgo
Sam Holder, Olivia Mustafa, Patrick Russell, Matt Williams
ITV News: Nasal Spray Addiction
Camilla Horrox, Joshua Falcon, Fergus Walsh
BBC Ten O’clock News: Assisted Dying, North America
Christina Michaels, Tessa Chapman, Ben Effemey
5 News, ITN: Buvidal: A Postcode Lottery
News Story of the Year (general audience)
Hannah Barnes
The New Statesman website: Hundreds of doctors are challenging the BMA’s stance on puberty blockers
Laura Donnelly, Claudia Marquis
Daily Telegraph: Door to door to tackle NHS health crisis
Lucy Elkins
Daily Mail/Mail Online: Baby born after womb transplant in UK first
Eleanor Hayward and Poppy Koronka
The Times: Boom in weight-loss drugs
Shaun Lintern
The Sunday Times: 721 children in rogue surgeon investigation at Great Ormond Street
News Story of the Year (specialist audience) – supported by Real Chemistry
Rebecca Coombes
The BMJ: Danone’s use of midwives to give branded infant feeding advice in supermarket sparks anger
Elisabeth Mahase
The BMJ: Obesity: Only half of England has access to comprehensive weight loss services
Alison Moore
HSJ: “Decomposing bodies” dsicovered at multiple hospitals
Emily Townsend
HSJ: Exclusive: Hundreds of mothers diverted while in labour
Emma Wilkinson
Pharmaceutical Journal: NHS spends £430m on inhalers linked to Philip Morris since Vectura takeover
Podcast of the Year
Andrew Gregory, Michael Safi, Alex Bishop, Joel Cox
The Guardian: A golden age for cancer treatment?
Jim Reed, Emma Crowe, Sebastian Parris, Kate Collins
BBC: The Covid Inquiry Podcast
Rachel Schraer
BBC Radio 4: BBC File on 4 Investigates, Long Covid: Mind Over Matter?
Science Explained – supported by Roche
David Cox
BBC: What happens when you stop taking weight-loss drugs?
Andrew Gregory
The Guardian: Exclusive: Scientists use live human brain tissue to speed up hunt for dementia cure
Katharine Lang
British Medical Journal: What do we know about covid-19’s effects on the gut?
Michael Peel with additional reporting by David Pilling
Financial Times: The rising threat of deadly diseases jumping from animals to humans
Amanda Ruggeri
BBC.com: Foetal alcohol syndrome: Why fathers need to watch what they drink too
Tom Whipple
The Times: Why the battle for covid’s origin rages
Outstanding Contribution to Health and Medical Journalism – supported by AstraZeneca
There are no finalists announced for this, the MJA’s premier award. Judges from each category panel can put their winner forward for the award, which is then decide on a majority of all judges.
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