American Journal of Law and Medicine

Confronting Conflict: Addressing Institutional Conflicts of Interest in Academic Medical Centers

[...] this paper discusses approaches to ensure AMCs are effectively managing these conflicts. [...] a comprehensive policy must be put into place that provides for both proactive and reactive means to identify, manage, and address ICOIs. Individual conflicts of interest are rife in healthcare, and substantial attention has been given to address them. Yet a more substantive concern-institutional conflicts of interest ("ICOIs") in academic medical centers ("AMCs") engaged in research and cli...

The Anti-Patient Psychology of Health Courts: Prescriptions From a Lawyer-Physician

Health court proponents, including non-profit legal reform coalitions such as Common Good2 and private professional advocacy organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA)3, support creation of specialized courts to adjudicate medical malpractice lawsuits.4 Proponents base their support of health courts on purported benefits of health courts, including 1 decreased cost of litigation because of removal of juries and the cost of educating juries - health courts will be presided ov...

Towards a New Moral Paradigm in Health Care Delivery: Accounting for Individuals

[...] the details of this proposal can be enacted now and will be available in the future, regardless of subsequent changes to prevailing health care delivery mechanisms. [...] it validates, reinforces, and protects the humanity of each person even in the face of the most tragic of choices. For years, commentators have debated how to most appropriately allocate scarce medical resources over large populations. In this paper, I abstract the major rationing schema into three general approaches...

Oil and Water: Mixing Individual Mandates, Fragmented Markets, and Health Reform

[...] some people are worried about the wellbeing of the uninsured themselves, motivated by the uninsured individual whose cancer or heart disease will go undiagnosed and lead to premature death or, if diagnosed, will cause him to choose between his financial and physical wellbeing because of the high costs of his medical care. [...] it brings past research on fragmentation of health insurance markets, often discussed within the realm of economics, into the legal and policy debate to define ...

Compounding Problems and Compounding Confusion: Federal Regulation of Compounded Drug Products and the Fdama Circuit Split

16 Estimates of the proportion of prescriptions that are compounded range from 1% to 10% of all prescriptions.17 While virtually every pharmacy compounds, a much smaller number - somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000 of the 200,000 total pharmacies in this country - makes compounding its specialty.18 A 2001 study by the FDA found that a mere 650 specialty pharmacies fill more than 13 million of the total prescriptions for compounded products each year.19 When a pharmacist engages in compounding, ...

How the Fda Can Overturn Wyeth V. Levine

In Wyeth v. Levine, the Supreme Court held that an FDA-approved drug label did not preempt state tort law. Although the Supreme Court did not defer to the FDA's position, language in the opinion, and Breyer's concurring opinion, suggest that the FDA may be able to abrogate Wyeth v. Levine using the administrative law doctrine originally announced in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council. That is, the FDA may claim deference to its position in a future case involving the same legal ques...

Third Circuit Says Abstention Proper in Litigation Against Virgin Islands Board of Medical Examiners

According to the district court, because the state proceedings against Williams were ongoing, judicial in nature, and provided Williams with opportunity to bring his constitutional claim, abstention under the Younger v. Harris2 line of cases was proper.3 Furthermore, because Williams failed to produce evidence of bias on the part of the Board, the exceptions to Younger did not apply.4 The original disciplinary proceedings against Dr. Williams stemmed from his allegedly negligent treatment of ...

Federal Courts Struggle with Supreme Court Refusal to Promulgate a Bright-Line Rule for Evaluating Erisa Plan Administrators' Conflicts of Interest

[...] when all but one factor are closely balanced, any single factor may serve as a tiebreaker.

Scope of Nevada Pharmacies' Duty of Care: Nevada Supreme Court Rules That Pharmacies Have No Legal Duty to Third Parties for Harm Caused by Customer Misuse of Prescription Drugs

[...] a footnote in the Sanchez majority opinion discussed the possibility that a 2006 regulation42 may have created a special relationship that would fall into the exception expressed in Restatement (Second) of Torts § 315, effectively expanding pharmacist's responsibilities to third party injuries.43 Amy Todd