About the Center for Health Policy and Law
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Based in Northeastern University School of Law, the Center for Health Policy and Law draws from participating departments across Northeastern University to provide a rich context for students and researchers interested in public health law, health and human rights, health governance, intellectual property, bioethics, healthcare delivery law and the regulation of our healthcare system. It is guided by faculty and staff with diverse areas of expertise and is affiliated with an array of university-wide institutes, programs and experiential learning opportunities.
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Wendy E. Parmet
Faculty Director
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Jennifer Lea Huer
Managing Director
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Jonathan Kahn
Co-Faculty Director
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Salus Populi: Educating the Judiciary About the Social Determinants of Health
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Earlier this fall, trial and appellate court judges from across the US participated in a lively day of discussions as part of the program pilot. The curriculum, carefully developed over the last year and a half, includes modules that cover an introduction to the social determinants of health, poverty, racism, employment and housing.
Throughout the program, we welcomed the following guest speakers:
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John Auerbach, Director of Intergovernmental and Strategic Affairs, CDC
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Hon. Kenneth V. Desmond, Jr., Associate Justice, Massachusetts Appeals Court
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Danya Keene, Associate Professor of Social Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health
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Lia Scott, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Georgia State University School of Public Health
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Lauren Smith, Chief Health Equity and Strategy Officer, CDC Foundation
The program also included a number of guests who helped facilitate small and large group discussions:
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Hon. Jay Blitzman, Associate Justice, Middlesex Juvenile Court, Massachusetts
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Todd Brower, Judicial Education Director, UCLA School of Law Williams Institute
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Hon. Robert Foster, Justice, Massachusetts Land Court
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Beth Gillia, Director, Corinne Wolfe Children's Law Center, University of New Mexico School of Law
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Hon. Elizabeth Katz, Judge, US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts
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Ellen Lawton, Senior Fellow, HealthBegins
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Northeastern Faculty Involved in New Book on COVID-19 and Human Rights
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Professor Martha Davis is co-editor of COVID-19 and Human Rights (Routledge 2021), a compelling collection that brings together original explorations of the COVID-19 pandemic and its wide-ranging, global effects on human rights. Professor Brook Baker authored a chapter, “Campaigning for both innovation and equitable access to COVID-19 medicines.”
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COVID-19 Law and Policy Briefings Come to an End
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Public Health Law Watch (PHLW) wrapped up the COVID-19 Law & Policy Briefings series this summer. Throughout the series, scholars and experts discussed myriad topics related to the pandemic and its impact.
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2021 - 2022 Conferences and Events
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ANNUAL HEALTH LAW CONFERENCE
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Climate change and global warming are already having a significant impact on public health and healthcare systems across the globe. Lack of infrastructure and preparedness result in systems that are ill-equipped to handle the challenges of increases in climate change-related deaths, acute and chronic illnesses, and resource strain. These issues disproportionately impact tribal communities and populations already experiencing significant disparities in care and access. Law and policy will be instrumental in determining the response to ongoing climate change issues, and will most certainly influence how healthcare and public health systems develop strategies for resilience and change.
Keynote Speaker
Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity, and Community Initiatives, and Associate Professors of Humanities, Health, and Society,
Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
CALL FOR PAPERS
As part of its annual health law conference, the Center for Health Policy and Law seeks abstracts for papers that address the connection between climate change and health. We are especially interested in papers that make health equity central to their analysis.
Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to present at the virtual conference on Friday, April 15, 2022, and publish their papers in the Northeastern University Law Review.
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ANNUAL LECTURE IN HEALTH POLICY AND LAW
Medical Apartheid Goes Viral: Medication-Access Parity and the Mask of Futility
Friday, October 22, 2021
Harriet A. Washington is a prolific science writer, editor and ethicist. She is the author of the seminal Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, which won a National Book Critics Circle Award, the PEN/Oakland Award and the American Library Association Black Caucus Nonfiction Award, and five other acclaimed books, including A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind as well as Carte Blanche: The Erosion of Informed Consent in Medical Research, published in 2021 by Columbia Global Reports.
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FALL 2021 HEALTH LAW ROUNDTABLES
October 19
No Medical Justification: The Fight for Civil Rights in Southern Psychiatry
Associate Professor and Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellow for Nursing and the Humanities,
Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing
November 17
Disability and Citizenship in the Early United States
Associate Professor of English and Associate Director of the Humanities Center,
Northeastern University
December 8
Should Medicine Continue to Treat People Differently Based on their Race and Ethnicity?
A. Bernard Ackerman Professor of the Culture of Medicine,
Harvard University
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Faculty and Staff Updates
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Professor Jonathan Kahn has been awarded a National Library of Medicine grant to support his book project, “The Uses of Diversity: Managing Race and Representation in Law, Politics, and the Biosciences.” The book will examine the biomedical, social, legal, commercial and policy implications of “diversity’s” emergence as a central organizing concept animating an array of programs and research agendas aimed at driving forward genomic innovation.
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Professor Wendy E. Parmet completed her service as Reporter to the Uniform Law Commission’s Study Committee on Public Health Emergency Authorities and began serving as an Observer on the Commission’s Drafting Committee on Public Health Emergency Laws.
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Selected Faculty Publications
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Professor of Law and Health Sciences
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Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science
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Jonathan Kahn
Professor of Law and Biology
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“Diversity’s Pandemic Distractions,” Health Matrix (forthcoming).
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“Precision Medicine and the Resurgence of Race in Genomic Medicine.” In Consuming Genetics: Ethical and Legal Considerations of New Technologies, ed. I.G. Cohen (forthcoming).
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“Rethinking Implicit Bias: The Limits to Science as a Tool of Racial Justice.” In The Oxford Handbook of Race and Law in the United States, eds D. Carbado et al. (forthcoming).
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“The Legal Weaponization of Racialized DNA: A New Genetic Politics of Affirmative Action,” Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives (2021).
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Wendy E. Parmet
Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law and Public Policy and Urban Affairs
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We Make News, We Comment on News
Check out our faculty’s comments in the media, op-eds and more.
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