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NOVEMBER 2021
About the Center for Health Policy and Law
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.
Wendy E. Parmet
Faculty Director
Jennifer Lea Huer
Managing Director
Jonathan Kahn
Co-Faculty Director
News
Salus Populi: Educating the Judiciary About the Social Determinants of Health
The Center for Health Policy and Law, in collaboration with the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, has officially launched its judicial education program, “Salus Populi: Educating the Judiciary About the Social Determinants of Health.”

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:
  • John Auerbach, Director of Intergovernmental and Strategic Affairs, CDC
  • Hon. Kenneth V. Desmond, Jr., Associate Justice, Massachusetts Appeals Court
  • Danya Keene, Associate Professor of Social Behavioral Sciences, Yale School of Public Health
  • Lia Scott, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Georgia State University School of Public Health
  • 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:

Salus Populi is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Northeastern Faculty Involved in New Book on COVID-19 and Human Rights
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.”
COVID-19 Law and Policy Briefings Come to an End
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.

In addition to PHLW and the Center for Health Policy and Law, collaborators and producers of the series included colleagues from Temple University Center for Public Health Law Research, Wayne State University Law School, Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, The Network for Public Health Law and ChangeLab Solutions.

The briefings and related COVID-19 Policy Playbook I and II were sponsored by the American Public Health Association and the de Beaumont Foundation.
2021 - 2022 Conferences and Events
ANNUAL HEALTH LAW CONFERENCE
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.

Please email [email protected] with “2022 Call for Papers” in the subject line.

Visit law.northeastern.edu/hlc22 for more information and to register for the 2022 Health Law Conference.
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.
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
Faculty and Staff Updates
Professor Brook Baker was invited to become a member of the Policy Working Group of the People's Vaccine Alliance. He is also a member of the Expert Working Group on the Pandemic Treaty, an effort supported by the U.N.

Professor Leo Beletsky was named one of the 10 most-cited health law professors, according to a recent Bill of Health post.

Additionally, on October 20, Professor Beletsky and Health in Justice Action Lab hosted a webinar to highlight their recent work on the updated Drug-Induced Homicide Defense Toolkit.

Professor Richard Daynard was a recent guest on the Voices in Vulnerability podcast, where he discussed “Human Behavior, Legal Doctrine, and Policy Design.”

Fellow Faith Khalik presented at the American Public Health Association's 2021 Annual Meeting and Expo (APHA 2021). Her presentation, “Building a Judicial Education Curriculum on the Social Determinants of Health,” was part of the APHA Law Section virtual poster sessions.
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.

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. 
Selected Faculty Publications
Professor of Law

Assistant Professor of Law and Political Science

Jonathan Kahn
Professor of Law and Biology

  • “Diversity’s Pandemic Distractions,” Health Matrix (forthcoming).
  • “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).
  • “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). 
  • “The Legal Weaponization of Racialized DNA: A New Genetic Politics of Affirmative Action,” Georgetown Journal of Law and Modern Critical Race Perspectives (2021).
Wendy E. Parmet
Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law and Public Policy and Urban Affairs

We Make News, We Comment on News
Check out our faculty’s comments in the media, op-eds and more.