By Mary Ann Chirba and Alice A. Noble Given the ambitions and reach of the Affordable Care Act, confusion about its intended and inadvertent impact is inevitable. Since its enactment in 2010, the ACA has raised legitimate and less grounded concerns among various stakeholders ranging from individuals and employers facing coverage mandates to States deciding whether…
By Jeffrey Skopek [Posted on behalf of Jeffrey Skopek, Academic Fellow, Petrie-Flom Center (with the same disclaimer about the off-the-cuff nature of live blogging)] Deborah Autor, Deputy Commissioner for Global Regulatory Operations and Policy, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (for now – and soon headed off to Mylan), gave a keynote address exploring the ways in which the…
By I. Glenn Cohen [Cross-Posted at Prawfsblawg] How often do you hear your students or friends or colleagues talk about operating on very little sleep for work or family reasons? In my case it is often, and depending on the setting it is sometimes stated as a complaint and sometimes as a brag (the latter…
By Dov Fox Yesterday, I wrote about Ryan Abbott‘s new article that proposes to use health information exchanges to improve the collection of data about the safety of approved drugs. Today, I want to address his recommendation that the government pay private parties to help the Food and Drug Administration conduct post-market drug surveillance. The article argues that health information…
By Casey Thomson This week’s round-up discusses the upcoming cases relevant to bioethics in the Supreme Court, the benefits of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, the surprisingly low effectiveness rate of this year’s flu vaccine, and the problems with ACA’s Accountable Care Organizations. See below for details and more summaries: Frank Pasquale (@FrankPasquale) shared a…
By Casey Thomson Even the surprisingly resurrected Richard III (on the Twitter-sphere, anyway) appreciates bioethics concerns. Read on to find out more about Richard III’s eagerness for patient confidentiality and other updates in this week’s (extended) Twitter round-up: Stephen Latham (@StephenLatham) included a link to his blog post challenging Andrew Francis’ recent claim that penicillin…
By The Petrie-Flom Center Michael Frakes, former Petrie-Flom Center Academic Fellow and current Assistant Professor at Cornell Law School, has an interesting new article out in the American Economic Review: The Impact of Medical Liability Standards on Regional Variations in Physician Behavior: Evidence from the Adoption of National-Standard Rules Abstract: I explore the association between regional…
By Jonathan J. Darrow Questionable baldness remedies have been peddled since the beginning of medicine. According to Pliny (23-79 A.D.), ashes of seahorse could cure baldness. Almost 2000 years later, the British Medical Association warned the public of the increasing “number of preparations put forward for the cure of baldness,” particularly those which “are not…
By The Petrie-Flom Center With Panelists: Eric Lander, Broad Institute and Biology, MIT Lisa Randall, Physics, Harvard University Charles Rosenberg, History of Science, Harvard University Moderated by: Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School Wednesday, February 65:00 – 7:00 pm Pfizer Lecture HallMallinckrodt Chemistry Lab B2312 Oxford Street, Harvard UniversityCambridge,…
By Adriana Benedict In December, I wrote a blog post noting that access to biomedical research is critical not only for informed patient care, but also for the sustainable development of pharmaceutical R&D responsive to local needs, especially in developing countries. In recent years, open access issues have taken on an increasingly important role in…
