Emma Yasinski Senior Investigative Reporter

Emma Yasinski is an award-winning science and medical journalist. At MedShadow, she investigates drug manufacturing oversight, quality assurance, and the underreported side effects of medications. Yasinski holds a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Lafayette College and a master’s degree in science and medical journalism from Boston University. She’s also completed fellowships with the Association of Healthcare Journalism on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reporting on efficacy studies. Most recently, she sharpened her investigative skills through a course at The Poynter Institute.

In addition to her reporting, Yasinski creates short, informative videos for MedShadow’s social media that have reached hundreds of thousands of viewers.

Writing about health for a variety of audiences, her work has appeared in outlets such as the New York Times, American Society of Hematology Clinical News, Smithsonian Magazine, The Atlantic, and more.

Yasinski’s interest in the way clinical trials are designed, conducted, and the information from them is disseminated began early. As a child, she was fortunate enough, she feels, to be a participant in a clinical trial in which a small device was inserted into her heart to cover an atrial septal defect which was causing it to grow unevenly and — over time — would likely have led to symptoms like shortness of breath and heart failure. The surgery was successful, and today she lives a largely healthy and normal life. However, as one of the first recipients of the treatment, she may be the first to discover any long-term effects— positive or negative. Additionally, the results of the trial were never published. While there has been improvement since then, many trials continue to go unpublished today, leaving people without critical insights into the medications they take.

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