Research initiatives reflect the breadth of the Center’s interdisciplinary work
Today's society faces many critical challenges to ensuring good health and high-quality health care. Such challenges involve a range of issues, such as equitable access to health care; the financing and delivery of health care; the legal and regulatory environment of health care enterprises; the health of different segments of our society, including children, the elderly, persons with disabilities, and economically or otherwise disadvantaged members of our community; dilemmas in bioethics; conflict resolution and patient safety; biotechnology and scientific research; environmental and public health; and international health and human rights.
The Center encourages research and scholarship that address all of these important 21st-century challenges.
Focus Areas in Health Law Research
Law, Medicine & Bioethics
The tension between patients’ rights and the obligations of health care professionals has generated national public debates over such issues as the right to refuse treatment, tort reform, abortion and reproductive issues, and medical experiments on human subjects.
Regulation of Health Care Business
Health care providers must ensure their compliance with an increasingly complex and rapidly changing set of federal and state laws and agency regulations, including those addressing antitrust violations, fraud and abuse, corporate and tax issues, and patient safety and privacy concerns.
Health Sciences,Technology & Law
Advances in technology have often outpaced society’s ability to respond to the ethical, legal, and societal implications of the fast-growing health sciences fields. Law and ethics are key considerations in new scientific research and development.
Public Health and Environmental Law
Public health takes a population-based approach to health and involves such laws as those addressing emergency preparedness, infectious diseases, chronic illness, sanitation, regulation of food and drugs, and environmental factors affecting health.
Health & Social Justice
The social, economic, and environmental challenges to a community’s health and welfare are increasingly evident, especially in historically under-served populations and in growing urban environments.
International Health & Human Rights
Laws and international treaties and conventions offer frameworks for ensuring the health of our global community and address a broad array of 21st-century challenges, from multinational corporations to individuals living in impoverished developing countries.
