Upcoming Event – The Guatemala STD Inoculation Studies: What Should We Do Now?

Tuesday, November 13, 2012
12:30-2:00
Wasserstein Hall, Classroom 3019
Harvard Law School

In the late 1940s, US and Guatemalan researchers conducted a host of experiments on vulnerable Guatemalan subjects, purposefully exposing them to and infecting them with a number of STDs without their consent.  The experiments were kept hidden for more than half a century, until they were discovered and exposed only recently by historian Susan Reverby.  The US government has since apologized for what happened, but a class action suit brought on behalf of the Guatemalan subjects was dismissed in June and efforts to directly compensate the victims have not been forthcoming.   Please join Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center and Human Rights Program for a panel discussion of the study and possible legal and political responses that may be available now, both domestically and from an international human rights perspective.  Panelists will include:

  • Susan Reverby, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Wellesley College
  • I. Glenn Cohen, Assistant Professor of Law, Faculty Co-Director, Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law School
  • Holly Fernandez Lynch, Executive Director, Petrie-Flom Center, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
  • Wendy Parmet,  George J. and Kathleen Waters Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law
  • Fernando Ribeiro Delgado, Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law, Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School

This event is free and open to the public.  Lunch and refreshments will be served.

 

Institutional Corruption, Conflicts of Interest and Commitment, and Online Courses

I am writing this post from a terrific conference on Institutional Financial Conflicts of Interest In Research Universities, hosted at Harvard Law by the Petrie-Flom Center and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.

One set of fascinating questions that has been raised is when the university should reign in the ability of faculty members to take on directorships and other outside activities. While these issues have been well-known in the sciences and medicine, increasingly it has come home to roost in the law and other faculties. The Harvard Law School  recently adopted a new conflicts of interest policy, as part of a Harvard-wide revision of its policies.

Here is a question that has received less discussion from what I have seen, though it may become more pressing given Coursera, EdX, and other online teaching venues.  The New Yorker profile of my Harvard Business School colleague and world-renowned teacher Clayton Christensen reported that he has recorded videos lectures (complete with good-looking young men and women actors playing students and laughing at the right moments, what a perk!) for the University of Phoenix’s lecture series, for significant remuneration. Imagine that this series (or one of these other non-Harvard platforms) were to offer to pay half a million dollars to me to teach a 4-hour Civil Procedure (or health law or bioethics and the law course) that would in part mirror the teaching I do of the course at Harvard Law School. Should Harvard have a veto right over me doing so? Should it demand “a piece of the action” and revenue sharing agreements as a condition of letting me participate? After all, I am in some ways trading on my capitol for teaching at Harvard, and potentially also diluting the reputational value of Harvard instruction (the informercial would go “You don’t need to go to Harvard to get a lecture from a Harvard Prof! Only $9.99!”) How can the rules governing patent and other IP ownership in the  life and other sciences help us develop a sensible policy? Would or should things be different if I gave these lectures for free on YouTube rather than selling them? [Disclosure: Harvard DOES have a policy on conflicts of commitment, though I am unaware of it speaking specifically to these issues about online lectures, but happy to be corrected].

Reminder: Tomorrow, Institutional Financial Conflicts of Interest in Research Universities

Friday, November 2, 2012
8:30am – 6:30pm (reception to follow)
Milstein Conference Rooms, 2nd Floor
Wasserstein Hall
1585 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA

The Petrie-Flom Center and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics will be co-sponsoring a day-long symposium organized by Dr. David Korn on institutional financial conflicts of interest in research universities. The speaker line-up is incredible, including Derek Bok and Zeke Emanuel, among other experts from academia and government.

For more information, and to register (attendance is free), check out the symposium webpage.  We hope to see you there!

Event 11/13 – Massachusetts: A Community Approach to Quality, Affordable Health Care

On behalf of our colleagues at Harvard Law School’s Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, we wanted to let you know about the following event:

Massachusetts: A Community Approach to Quality, Affordable Health Care

Tuesday, November 13th

6 – 7:30pm (food provided)

Wasserstein 1015, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA

Six years after passing the groundbreaking health care access law that became the model for national reform, Massachusetts has once again led the nation through legislation setting a limit on the growth of health care cost.  What progress has the state’s health care community made on cost so far, and what will it take to improve quality and meet the new cost growth standards?  Come hear the perspective of Andrew Dreyfus, President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts and leader of the company’s efforts to create one of the largest commercial payment reform initiatives in the nation.

TOMORROW: Einer Elhauge’s Obamacare on Trial – Book Talk and Panel Discussion

Obamacare on Trial

Book talk and panel discussion by Einer Elhauge, Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Law, Harvard Law School (and founding director of the Petrie-Flom Center)

Panelists:

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2012, 6:00 pm

Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East A

Harvard Law School

1585 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA

Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library

Upcoming Event – Advances in HIV Prevention: Legal, Clinical, and Public Health Issues

Monday, November 5, 2012
12-1:30 pm
Austin Hall, Room 111
Harvard Law School

On July 3, 2012, FDA approved OraQuick, the first at-home HIV test available for sale directly to consumers, allowing individuals to self-test and receive confidential results in about 20 minutes. Then on July 16, FDA approved once-daily Truvada, an already-approved HIV therapy, as the first agent approved for pre-exposure prophylaxis in uninfected, at-risk adults. These developments represent dramatic changes in the fight against HIV, and raise a host of legal, clinical, and public health issues. Please join us for a panel discussion of these issues with some of the preeminent leaders in the field, moderated by Robert Greenwald, Director of the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation at Harvard Law School:

  • Douglas A. Michels, President and CEO, OraSure Technologies, Inc.
  • David Piontkowsky, Senior Director for Medical Affairs, HIV and HIV Global Medical Director, Gilead Sciences, Inc.
  • Kenneth H. Mayer, Medical Research Director, Co-Chair of The Fenway Institute
  • Kevin Cranston, Director, Bureau of Infectious Disease, Massachusetts Department of Public Health
  • Mark Barnes, Senior Associate Provost, University Chief Research Compliance Officer, Harvard University

This event is free and open to the public. Lunch and refreshments will be served. Co-sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center, the Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation, and the Fenway Institute.

Reminder, TODAY – Open Access to Health Research

TODAY!
12:00-1:30pm
Wasserstein Hall 3019
Harvard Law School

If you’re in town, come join us for a discussion and some practical advice about open access to health research.  There’s a great group of panelists lined up:

The panel will be moderated by Scott LapinskiHMS Digital Resources and Services Librarian and Open Access Liaison, and June Casey, Librarian for Open Access and Scholarly Communication.  It will be followed by two brief “101” sessions on individual-level implementation of both the NIH’s Public Access and Harvard’s Open Access mandates.

Upcoming Event: 11/01/12 Obamacare on Trial – Book talk and panel discussion with Einer Elhauge

Obamacare on Trial

Book talk and panel discussion by Einer Elhauge, Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Law, Harvard Law School (and founding director of the Petrie-Flom Center)

Panelists:

November 1, 2012, 6:00 pm

Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East A

Harvard Law School

1585 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA

Sponsored by the Harvard Law School Library

Upcoming Event – Open Acccess to Health Research: Future Directions for the NIH Public Access Policy

Wednesday, October 24, 2012
12:00-1:30pm
Wasserstein Hall 3019
Harvard Law School

In 2008, the NIH Public Access Policy entered into force, requiring “that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication.”  Four years later, about 25% of NIH-funded manuscripts are not being made publicly accessible.  This not only limits important progress in health research and clinical practice, but also means that academic institutions must rely on highly expensive journal subscriptions to access tax-funded research. Importantly, Harvard’s Open Access Mandate has not yet been extended to Harvard Medical School or the Harvard School of Public Health. In May, the Harvard Library Faculty Advisory Council issued a public letter calling on faculty to promote open access scholarly publishing, noting that “Many large journal publishers have made the scholarly communication environment fiscally unsustainable and academically restrictive.”

In recognition of Open Access Week 2012, four distinguished panelists will explore the challenges and opportunities for increasing NIH Public Access Policy compliance and open access efforts at Harvard.

The panel will be moderated by Scott LapinskiHMS Digital Resources and Services Librarian and Open Access Liaison, and June Casey, Librarian for Open Access and Scholarly Communication.  It will be followed by two brief “101” sessions on individual-level implementation of both the NIH’s Public Access and Harvard’s Open Access mandates.

Co-sponsored by the Petrie-Flom CenterOffice of Scholarly CommunicationsRight to Research CoalitionUniversities Allied for Essential Medicines, and HLS Advocates for Human Rights.

Upcoming Event: Human Rights and the Social Determinants of Health, November 1-2, 2012 at Northeastern University

Human Rights and the Social Determinants of Health
Thursday, November 1, 2012, 1-5:30pm
Friday, November 2, 2012, 12-1:30pm
Northeastern University School of Law
Dockster Hall
65 Forsyth Street, Boston

The Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) and the Program on Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University School of Law are hosting an event entitled “Human Rights and the Social Determinants of Health” on November  1 and November 2, 2012. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Ichiro Kawachi, from the Harvard School of Public Health. The event will also feature a special presentation by Sir Michael Marmot of University College London. Marmot is known internationally as a pioneer in the field of the social determinants of health.  For further information, please contact Sasha Varasano