By Deborah Cho In recent years, providers have attempted to shift how health care is delivered so as to include the patient in the decision-making process. This concept of shared decision-making was most memorably relayed to me in medical school through a critical lesson during which we were instructed to replace the word “noncompliant” with…
By Deborah Cho [See Part I here] Last week, I wrote the first of a two-part series on tips that may be helpful for law students and lawyers interested in or working in health/medical law. I continue with Tip #4 here. 4. If you need to learn about a disease, procedure, or drug that you…
By Deborah Cho As a student in the Disability Litigation Clinic, one of the many fantastic clinics here at Harvard Law school, I’ve come to appreciate the value of hands-on experience as an essential component of legal education. One issue that we as students are often faced with, however, is a lack of familiarity with…
By Deborah Cho As announced earlier this month, CVS has decided to stop selling tobacco products in stores starting October 2014 because it is not in line with its goal of promoting health. Since this announcement, there have been countless articles and editorials on whether this was a good move by CVS or not. Those who…
By Deborah Cho Last summer, the FDA reversed its previous decision that required researchers to file INDs for fecal transplants to treat Clostridium difficile. This decision came without much official explanation as to the reasoning behind the reversal, but can be understood as a result of the unusually high success rates of fecal transplants in treating the…
By Deborah Cho I would highly recommend reading the Stanford Social Innovation Review’s recent article An Rx for Surplus Meds featuring the Dispensary of Hope, a brilliant model of providing prescription medications to those who need but can’t afford them. In a nutshell, the Dispensary of Hope, a not-for-profit enterprise, collects unused medication samples from participating physicians and pharmacies across the…
By Deborah Cho In my first post, I introduced the general problem of patients not being fully informed about their health insurance policies and instead relying on providers to correctly apply each patient’s unique policy when making medical decisions. Though patients are ultimately responsible for abiding by the terms of their individual insurance plans, there may…
By Deborah Cho With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, many consumers can now (or eventually…) head to HealthCare.gov to compare health insurance plans to find one that fits their needs. Health insurance plans, however, can be complicated and fraught with exceptions and exclusions that consumers learn of only when it is too late…
Deborah Cho is a second-year law student at Harvard Law School interested in social justice and health law. She graduated from UCLA with a BS in biochemistry and then attended Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. After two years of medical school, Deborah’s interest in social justice and inequitable access to health care prompted…
