To our readers: STAT at 1

Barely a year after we launched STAT with a pledge to deliver “fast, deep, and tough-minded journalism” about health, medicine, and scientific discovery, our mission could not be more urgent.

Today, we are unveiling a top-to-bottom redesign of STAT. Our new look is sleek and nimble, and we think better conveys our blend of energetic news and analysis, deep narratives and investigations, provocative opinion pieces, heartfelt essays about life and death, and eye-catching multimedia.

For our most devoted readers, we’re introducing STAT Plus, a premium subscription plan that will offer exclusive reporting about the pharmaceutical and biotech industries and other benefits. I would encourage you to check it out here.

Most of our site will remain free, as will our newsletters, including the newly launched “Trump in 30 Seconds.”  We’re so gratified that our readership continues to grow quickly, both nationally and around the world.

We strive to surprise readers every day with our journalism. Today we’re publishing a captivating nine-minute mini-documentary from a tiny British isle that plays host to the deadliest motorcycle race in the world. Over the history of the race, 252 people have died; this year, we spent time with a corps of medical volunteers trying to prevent more deaths.

Be sure to also check out an exclusive story that speaks volumes about the nation’s opioid crisis: the saga of drug traffickers in Lubbock, Texas, who are accused of using their elementary knowledge of chemistry to import vast quantities of synthetic opioids from China.

We are proud of these stories, and so many more produced from our headquarters in Boston, the epicenter of biotech and medicine, and from our reporters in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland, and, as of next month, Atlanta.

We are also grateful to our sister publication, the Boston Globe, for being such a committed partner, and to our owner and publisher, John Henry, who had the vision to create STAT.

Feel free to email me if you have thoughts about our redesign or STAT Plus. I’m at [email protected] and would appreciate the feedback.

Here’s a look back at some of our most memorable stories: