Check out the September 4th edition of the Petrie-Flom Center’s biweekly e-newsletter for the latest on events, affiliate news and scholarship, and job and fellowship opportunities in health law policy and bioethics.
Featured in this edition:
2016 Annual Conference: Big Data, Health Law, & Bioethics
May 6-7, 2016
Wasserstein Hall, Milstein East ABC, Harvard Law School, 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA
“Big Data” is a phrase that has been used pervasively by the media and the lay public in the last several years. While many definitions are possible, the common denominator seems to include the “three V’s” – Volume (vast amounts of data), Variety (significant heterogeneity in the type of data available in the set), and Velocity (speed at which a data scientist or user can access and analyze the data).
This conference, and anticipated edited volume, will aim to: (1) identify the various ways in which law and ethics intersect with the use of big data in health care and health research, particularly in the United States; (2) understand the way U.S. law (and potentially other legal systems) currently promotes or stands as an obstacle to these potential uses; (3) determine what might be learned from the legal and ethical treatment of uses of big data in other sectors and countries; and (4) examine potential solutions (industry best practices, common law, legislative, executive, domestic and international) for better use of big data in health care and health research in the U.S.
If you are interested in participating, please send a 1-page abstract of the paper you would plan to present to petrie-flom@law.harvard.edu as soon as possible, but not later than December 1, 2015. If your abstract is selected, your final paper will be due on April 4, 2016, and you will be assigned a presentation slot for the conference. Please note that all presenters must provide a full final draft in order to participate and that presenters are expected to attend the conference for its full duration. Depending on how many abstracts are selected, the conference may run for part of a second day; therefore, please hold both May 6 and May 7, 2016 open. We will pay travel expenses for presenters who must travel to Cambridge; co-authored papers must name a single presenter. More detailed information is available on our website.
