By Michael L. Millenson The latest draft government strategic plan for health information technology pledges to support health information sharing among individuals, health care providers and others “so that they can make informed decisions and create better health outcomes.” Those good intentions notwithstanding, the current health data landscape is dramatically different from when the organizational…
By Barbara Pfeffer Billauer Legal pundits are predicting the imminent demise (or at least substantial enfeeblement) of the Chevron doctrine. Until recently, that case afforded substantial judicial deference to decisions made by administrative agencies if a statutory provision under its purview was ambiguous. Now two cases are before the Supreme Court challenging an agency interpretation…
Interviewed by William Leonard Pickard George Church, PhD, is the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a founding member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard. His research efforts include the first direct genome sequencing method, collaborating…
by Francis X. Shen, Susan M. Wolf, and Frances Lawrenz The advent of highly portable MRI will transform brain research, but urgently requires ethical and legal guidance. Rather than participants traveling to the MRI scanner, now the scanner can travel to them. This advance could enable research with remote and marginalized communities that have not…
by Victoria Litman, M.Div., J.D., LL.M. On May 21, 2024, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland in the Federal Register. This publication kicks off a 62-day comment period on a rule that would move marijuana to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act…
By Marcelo Corrales Compagnucci Extended Reality (XR) technologies like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR), are revolutionizing healthcare. These tools, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), are enhancing how medical professionals work across various specialties such as cardiology, pharmacy, and neuroscience, improving precision and efficiency in ways previously unimaginable. Tools like IBM…
Stephanie Tabashneck, PsyD, JD, is a Senior Fellow in Law and Applied Neuroscience at the Petrie-Flom Center and Center for Law, Brain and Behavior (CLBB) at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. A forensic psychologist and an attorney, she focuses her research, practice, and teaching on neural development in children and adolescents, substance use issues, and…
By James G. Hodge, Jr. and Jennifer L. Piatt Surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court’s withdrawal of the longstanding constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization on June 24, 2022, multiple state supreme courts have done their own “about face” on reproductive rights. Motivated perhaps by the infamous leaked decision in Dobbs,…
By Joelle Boxer Two years ago, the Kenyan High Court in Malindi decided PAK and Salim Mohammed v. Attorney General et al., affirming that the constitutional right to abortion is “fundamental.” Approximately 2,600 people lose their lives to unsafe abortion in Kenya each year, with an additional 21,000 people requiring hospitalization. While the Kenyan Constitution,…
By Elaine Marshall, Isabel Geisler, L. Virginia Martinez, Krystal Abbott, and Katherine Hazen Social drivers of health (SDOH), sometimes known as the social determinants of health, are factors in the social environment that shape individual and population health, including poverty, racism, housing, education, and employment. When judges decide cases that impact these social factors, their…
