Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Healthcare Blockchain Infrastructure: A Comparative Approach, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

Blockchain has been hailed as the most disruptive technology of the next decade. One of the areas of immediate application is healthcare, where different types of blockchain applications could help streamline data sharing, protect patient privacy, and assist in the monitoring of drug shipments. This Article explores the first steps taken by healthcare companies in the United States to incorporate blockchain solutions into their business models. It then contrasts them to ongoing experiments in the European Union, with a focus on Sweden’s adoption of CareChain (a national, interoperable blockchain health data platform) and Estonia’s digitization of 95% of the country’s …

Ip Preparedness For Outbreak Diseases, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

Outbreaks of infectious diseases will worsen, as illustrated by the recent back-to-back Ebola and Zika epidemics. The development of innovative drugs, especially in the form of vaccines, is key to minimizing future outbreaks, yet current intellectual property (IP) regimes are ineffective in supporting this goal.

IP scholarship has not adequately addressed the role of IP in the development of vaccines for outbreak diseases. This Article fills that void. Through case studies on the recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks, it provides the first descriptive analysis of the role of IP from the pre- to the post-outbreak stages, specifically identifying IP inefficiencies. …

Accessibility Of Medical Diagnostic Equipment - Implications For People With Disability, Lisa Iezzoni, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

Under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has inactivated or rescinded numerous rules and guidelines issued by prior administrations, sometimes attracting considerable public attention in the process. Little noticed, however, was a decision by the DOJ on December 26, 2017, to formally withdraw four Advance Notices of Proposed Rulemaking related to Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including rulemaking that addressed making medical diagnostic equipment accessible to people with disability. For now, this step halts efforts on a national level to ensure accessibility of such equipment, which includes exam tables, weight …

Segregation In St. Louis: Dismantling The Divide, For The Sake Of All [In Collaboration With], Thomas Harvey, John Mcannar, Michael-John Voss, Ascend Stl Inc., Community Builders Network Of Metro St. Louis, Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing And Opportunity Council (Ehoc), Team Tif

All Faculty Scholarship

Place matters. Where people live in St. Louis has been shaped by an extensive history of segregation that was driven by policies at multiple levels of government and practices across multiple sectors of society. The effect of segregation has been to systematically exclude African American families from areas opportunity that support economic, educational, and health outcomes.

Sex, Religion, And Politics, Or The Future Of Healthcare Antidiscrimination Law, Elizabeth Sepper, Jessica L. Roberts

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of Advance Directives In China: The "Coming Of Age" For Legal Regulation?, Yue An, Mimi Zou

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

Advance directives (AD) are playing an increasingly important role in end-of-life medical care and treatment in ageing societies. A growing number of jurisdictions have introduced AD-related laws as a component of their medical and health care regulatory frameworks. This article presents an analytical account of why specific regulation on ADs has yet to develop in China, the most populous ageing society in the world. We argue that the regulatory vacuum to date can be partly explained by limited public demand, which can be further accounted by relatively low public awareness as well as the influence of traditional views on life-and-death …

Remarks On Patient Privacy: Problems, Perspectives, And Opportunities, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

The Body Politic: Federalism As Feminism In Health Reform, Elizabeth Mccuskey

Faculty Scholarship

This essay illuminates how modern health law has been mainstreaming feminism under the auspices of health equity and social determinants research. Feminism shares with public health and health policy both the empirical impulse to identify inequality and the normative value of pursing equity in treatment. Using the Affordable Care Act's federal health insurance reforms as a case study of health equity in action, the essay exposes the feminist undercurrents of health insurance reform and the impulse toward mutuality in a body politic. The essay concludes by revisiting-from a feminist perspective-scholars' arguments that equity in health insurance is essential for human …

Restore, Revert, Repeat: Examining The Decompensation Cycle And The Due Process Limitations On The Treatment Of Incompetent Defendants, Margaret W. Smith

Vanderbilt Law Review

Though correctional facilities are one of the largest providers of mental health care in the country, the treatment provided often fails to address the needs of many mentally ill inmates. Indeed, after receiving treatment at a state mental health facility, many pretrial detainees who have been recently restored to competency revert to an incompetent state-or decompensate-upon their return to jail, at which point they must return to the state treatment facility to be restored to competency once again. This Note is the first to explore this "decompensation cycle," highlighting the significance of the problem and demonstrating how mental health treatment …

Fashioning Worker Protections To Combat The Thin Ideal's Cost On Fashion Models And Public Health, Erin E. Meyers

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Studies linking thin-obsessed media consumption to poor health outcomes for women have permeated the medical literature for years. The pressures female fashion models face to sacrifice their health for their jobs are perhaps even more disturbing. These harrowing issues are symptoms of the "thin ideal," the social norm glorifying a female body type so thin it is unattainable for most women. Despite the clear harm imposed by the thin ideal, the United States has done little to combat its effect on the working conditions of fashion models and on public health more generally. This Note suggests that the US fashion …

Prolegomenon On Pornography, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

Debates about pornography have always included arguments about its “effects.” Now we can gauge the effects of specifically computerized pornography. These novel effects include scientific research showing that digitalized pornography affects the brain and nervous system in harmful ways that no centerfold ever could. Accessing pornography online makes interactive and directive engagement with it possible, so that the consumer is no longer limited to staring at a two-dimensional representation of a stranger in the nude. The action now is more adventurous. The consumer’s involvement is more intimate and directive. What he does lies somewhere between looking at a centerfold and …

End Of Life And Autonomy: The Case For Relational Nudges In End-Of-Life Decision-Making Law And Policy, Megan S. Wright

Faculty Scholarship

Autonomy is a central principle in many areas of health law. In the case of end-of-life decision-making law and policy, however, the principle of autonomy requires revision. On the whole, law conceptualizes autonomy at the end of life as an individual making private, personal decisions based solely on their interests and values, and independent of others. But ordinary people understand autonomous decisionmaking at the end of life differently, in a way that acknowledges the importance of their interpersonal relationships. Social science research has documented that strengthening relationships with others, sharing responsibility in the decision-making process with healthcare providers, and taking …

Dying For A Solution: The Regulation Of Medical Devices Falls Short In The 21st Century Cures Act, Marilyn Uzdavines

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Biting The Hands That Feed “The Alligators”: A Case Study In Morbid Obesity Extremes, End-Of-Life Care, And Prohibitions On Harming And Accelerating The End Of Life, Michael J. Malinowski

Journal Articles

Obesity, recognized as a disease in the U.S. and at times as a terminal illness due to associated medical complications, is an American epidemic according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), American Heart Association (“AHA”), and other authorities. More than one third of Americans (39.8% of adults and 18.5% of children) are medically obese. This article focuses on cases of “extreme morbid obesity” (“EMO”)—situations in which death is imminent without aggressive medical interventions, and bariatric surgery is the only treatment option with a realistic possibility of success. Bariatric surgeries themselves are very high risk for EMO patients. …

The Faa’S Mental Health Standards: Are They Reasonable?, Katie Manworren

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Faith-Based Emergency Powers, Noa Ben-Asher

Faculty Publications

This Article explores an expanding phenomenon that it calls Faith-Based Emergency Powers. In the twenty-first century, conservatives have come to rely heavily on Faith-Based Emergency Powers as a leading legal strategy in the Culture Wars. This strategy involves carving faith-based exceptions to rights of women and LGBT people. The concept of Faith-Based Emergency Powers is developed in this Article through an analogy to the “War on Terror.” In the War on Terror, conservatives typically have taken the position that judges, legislators, and the public must defer to the President and the executive branch in matters involving national security. This argument …

Utilizing Adr As A Vehicle For Effective Communication And Success Of Payment In Urgent Care, Stephanie R. Goldberg

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Section II of this Note provides background on urgent care and ADR. Section III will elaborate on current payment procedures and explain some of the pitfalls that create a need for a supplementary payment solution. Section IV lays out a four-step plan incorporating a logical progression of ADR techniques that would enable quality of care and ease and success of financial arrangements, and vastly improved patient-provider relations. The feasibility of this plan will be demonstrated through application of its steps to hypothetical examples, representative of various realistic patient experiences, in Section V. This plan is intended to aid the millions …

Undocumented Citizens Of The United States: The Repercussions Of Denying Birth Certificates, Anna L. Lichtenberger

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming

Navigating The Research-Clinical Interface In Genomic Medicine: Analysis From The Cser Consortium, Ellen Wright Clayton, Susan M. Wolf, Laura M. Amendola, Et Al.

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Purpose: The Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) Consortium encompasses nine National Institutes of Health– funded U-award projects investigating translation of genomic sequencing into clinical care. Previous literature has distinguished norms and rules governing research versus clinical care. This is the first study to explore how genomics investigators describe and navigate the research–clinical interface. Methods: A CSER working group developed a 22-item survey. All nine U-award projects participated. Descriptive data were tabulated and qualitative analysis of text responses identified themes and characterizations of the research–clinical interface. Results: Survey responses described how studies approached the research–clinical interface, including in consent practices, recording …

Decriminalization Of Prostitution: The Soros Effect, Jody Raphael

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article explores the activities of George Soros and his charitable organization, Open Society Foundations (OSF), in advocating for the full decriminalization of the sex trade industry. Research finds that OSF spends only a small amount of money on grass roots “sex worker” groups around the world advocating for full decriminalization, but the foundation awards larger amounts of funds to large human rights groups whose reports and policies have a wider reach. OSF’s rationale for full decriminalization fails to consider violence and coercion in the sex trade industry, misreads research, and does not include research from venues where full decriminalization …