Law Commons^™

Respecting The Right To Research: Proxy Consent And Subject Assent In Alzheimer's Disease Clinical Trials, Mikaela L.J. Louie

Washington Law Review

Alzheimer’s Disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States and the only disease in the top ten causes of death with no prevention, treatment, or cure. To find any meaningful treatment or cure, researchers must conduct clinical trials on subjects with Alzheimer’s Disease. Subjects with Alzheimer’s Disease, however, generally lack legal capacity to consent to research due to diminished cognition. While informed consent standards for individuals who lack capacity are well settled in the medical treatment context, such standards are much less clear in the research context. A patchwork of legal and regulatory guidance addresses this issue, …

Animal Healthcare Robots: The Case For Privacy Regulation, Sulaf Al-Saif

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

Animal healthcare robots are a form of healthcare or wellness devices that possess the appearance of animals or pets and that collect data on the user. The appearance, use, and nature of data collected by these robots illustrate two types of devices for which privacy regulation falls short: Internet of Things (“IoT”) devices and healthcare devices. This paper surveys the animal healthcare robots currently in the market, details the special privacy concerns associated with such robots, examines the current state of potentially relevant privacy laws, and makes recommendations for privacy regulation in the future.

Science And Privacy: Data Protection Laws And Their Impact On Research, Mike Hintze

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

While privacy laws differ in their scope, focus, and approach, they all involve restrictions on the collection, use, sharing, or retention of information about people. In general, privacy laws reflect a societal consensus that privacy violations can lead to a wide range of financial, reputational, dignitary, and other harms, and that excessive collection and harmful uses of personal information should therefore be constrained. These laws require organizations to comply with a number of obligations concerning personal information. In practice, these requirements can lead organizations to refrain from collecting certain data, only use data with the consent of the individual, or …

Note: The Prisoner’S Dementia: Ethical And Legal Issues Regarding Dementia And Healthcare In Prison, David M. N. Garavito

Articles

This Note will give an overview of the political and legal issues that lead to the underdiagnosing of dementias in prison populations and the problems associated with such underdiagnosing. Part I will discuss various forms of dementia that place the prison population at risk, providing general information about both pathology and symptomology of these disorders. Part II will provide an overview of the laws and policies surrounding the healthcare of prisoners and how these policies could lead to underdiagnosing problems specifically with neurological problems like dementia. Part III will describe how the symptomology of dementia, especially for those who remain …

Nobody Knew How Complicated: Constraining The President's Power To Re(Shape) Health Reform, Sallie Thieme Sanford

Articles

Beginning on inauguration day, President Trump has attempted an executive repeal of the Affordable Care Act. In doing so, he has tested the limits of presidential power. He has challenged the force of institutional and non-institutional constraints. And, ironically, he has helped boost public support for the ACA’s central features. The first two sections of this article respectively consider the use of the President’s tools to advance and to subvert health reform.

The final two sections consider the forces constraining the administration’s attempted executive repeal. I argue that the most important institutional constraint, thus far, is found in multifaceted actions …

Health Reform And Higher Ed: Campuses As Harbingers Of Medicaid Universality And Medicare Commonality, Sallie Thieme Sanford

Articles

Between 2010 and 2016, the percentage of uninsured higher education students dropped by more than half. All the Affordable Care Act’s key access provisions contributed, but the most important factor appears to be the Medicaid expansion. This article is the first to highlight this phenomenon and ground it in data. It explores the reasons for this dramatic expansion of coverage, links it to theoretical frameworks, and considers its implications for the future of health reform.

Drawing on Medicaid universality scholarship, I discuss potential consequences of including the educationally privileged in this historically stigmatized program. Extending this scholarship, I argue that …

Permitted Incentives For Workplace Wellness Plans Under The Ada And Gina: The Regulatory Gap, Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

Although workplace wellness plans have been around for decades, they have flourished under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) into a $6 billion-dollar industry. Under PPACA, a “wellness plan” is a program of health promotion or disease prevention offered by an employer that is designed to promote health or prevent disease and which meets the other applicable requirements of that subsection. Employers look to these programs to promote healthy lifestyles, improve the overall health of employees and beneficiaries, and reduce rising healthcare costs.

PPACA’s amendments to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) permit employers to offer …

The Costs Of Uncertainty: The Doj’S Stalled Progress On Accessible Medical Equipment Under The Americans With Disabilities Act, Elizabeth Pendo

Articles

Imagine seeking medical care for serious pressure sores for a year, but your doctor never examining the sores because you could not get on the examination table in her office. Or imagine going more than fifteen years without an annual well-woman examination for the same reason, or your doctor guessing at the right dosage for a prescription because there was no scale that she could use to weigh you.

Although these scenarios may be difficult for many to imagine, they are common experiences for individuals with mobility disability. The Trump administration’s attacks on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act …