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Lindsey Cook, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
U.S. News
October 15, 2014

From the article:

In some ways, the learning health system has been around since the beginning of medicine, says Glenn Cohen, a professor specializing in health law policy at Harvard Law School.

When a doctor tried a new drug or treatment for a certain ailment and the patient reacted a certain way, that reaction has always influenced the doctor’s future treatment of patients with that ailment. Relying on your past experiences and maybe those of your colleagues is common sense. When a doctor asks another doctor for advice about a specific patient or gives advice based on something she learned from a patient’s treatment (without naming them, of course), that hasn’t been a big legal issue in the past.

“No one ever thought your doctor needed explicit consent before he could talk about your case with a colleague,” Cohen says.

Tags

bioethics   health law policy   i. glenn cohen   pharmaceuticals   public health