Navigating the minefield: legal ethics and healthcare law

Practicing law in the healthcare field is a daunting task due to the highly-regulated nature of the field and the increasing scrutiny of the conduct of industry providers, payors, and vendors. Attorneys must provide difficult opinions regarding matters with civil, criminal, and reimbursement implications and often are asked to represent multiple parties in healthcare-related settings. This article discusses some legal ethics issues for the healthcare practitioner and touches on some of the recent changes to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which were adopted by the American Bar Association's House of Delegates at its mid-February 2002 meeting. The authors conduct their analysis by applying the model rules to a number of hypothetical fact situations typical of those encountered in the day-to-day practice of healthcare law.     

Public trust and privacy in shared electronic health records

The development of information and communication technology in health care, also called eHealth, is expected to improve patient safety and facilitate more efficient use of limited resources. The introduction of electronic health records (EHRs) can make possible immediate, even automatic transfer of patient data, for health care as well as other purposes, across any kind of institutional, regional or national border. Data can thus be shared and used more effectively for quality assurance, disease surveillance, public health monitoring and research. eHealth may also facilitate patient access to health information and medical treatment, and is seen as an effective tool for patient empowerment. At the same time, eHealth solutions may jeopardize both patient safety and patients' rights, unless carefully designed and used with discretion. The success of EHR systems will depend on public trust in their compatibility with fundamental rights, such as privacy and confidentiality. Shared European EHR systems require interoperability not only with regard to technological and semantic standards, but also concerning legal, social and cultural aspects. Since the area of privacy and medical confidentiality is far from harmonized across Europe, we are faced with a diversity that will make fully shared EHR systems a considerable challenge.     

论我国公共危机治理中的信任

信任作为一种重要的社会资本是促进合作、实现公共危机治理的基础。本文在释义公共危机治理中信任涵义的基础上,归纳了信任在公共危机治理中的功能,分析了我国公共危机治理中信任缺失的表现及成因,并结合我国公共危机事件的特征提出了培育公共危机治理中信任的路径。     

Innovation capacity in the healthcare sector and historical anchors: examples from the UK,Switzerland and the US

Innovation is an integral part of economic development in developed economies. In the post 2008 period, a key policy agenda is that of sustainable development, which calls for innovation in all aspects of value-chains. In this paper, we focus on innovation from the biotech—pharma perspective to see whether or not this will lead to a sustainable future for the regions where there are clusters of firms in this sector. We examine data from a recently completed European Union study of innovation in the Healthcare sector from the UK and Switzerland, countries with an historical base in pharma, to understand how innovation pathways vary at the regional level in the broader life sciences, which incorporate biotech and more. Innovation in the healthcare sector in two regions, Oxfordshire in the UK and Zurich in Switzerland are compared. We contextualize our discussion by drawing on studies that focus on the sector in the US, specifically Boston. The analytical framework comprises three elements: innovation systems and national and regional economic development theories are the first two, followed by approaches which consider organizational or institutional activity. This framework is used to help explain and understand the complexity of how innovation is organized at the sub-national level. The overall context is that it is increasing becoming a condition for government financing of research that it has more immediate application in industry or have the possibility of commercialisation (e.g., translational research).     

Public health policy, legal uncertainty and the standard of care in rural and remote communities

This column examines the historical context in which the standard of health care offered to rural and remote communities has developed to become less than that afforded their metropolitan counterparts. In particular, it looks at the support offered to nurses working within these communities in terms of not only the lack of medical resources, including doctors, in these areas, but also the legal and professional restrictions placed on nurses that leave them feeling vulnerable to complaints of working outside their scope of practice. The column concludes with a discussion of the legal standard of care and ways in which nurses may adequately meet the health needs of their community while working within legal parameters.     

努力建设一支坚持信念精通法律维护正义恪守诚信的高素质律师队伍

今年1月,胡锦涛总书记、吴邦国委员长、温家宝总理、罗干同志和周永康同志在《司法部关于进一步加强律师队伍建设的报告》上作了重要批示。 胡锦涛总书记等中央领导同志的重要批示站在历史和全局的高度,充分肯定了律师队伍的本质和主流是好的,高度评价了律师队伍为促进经济建设和民主法制建设做出的积极贡献;强调了加强律师队伍建设在实践“三个代表”重要思想、维护司法公正、促进依法治国进程中的重要性;明确了新时期党和国家对律师工作和律师队伍建设的总要求,指出了当前加强律师队伍建设的着眼点、着力点和重要措施。批     

Maneuvering the mundane minefield: a practical guide to legal opinions in healthcare transactions

This Article examines the multitude of issues presented when attorneys prepare legal opinions for health law transactions. The authors analyze the two major pieces of guidance for the drafting of such opinions, and offer practical guidance and checklists for the preparation of such opinions.     

Support seeking,system avoidance,and citizenship: Social safety net usage after incarceration

Scholars have long described the American penal state and welfare state as joined by a common logic of social marginalization. But researchers have only recently begun to explore how the individuals who pass through the carceral system also interact with welfare state programs. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979, in this article, I explore how formerly incarcerated individuals make claims on the welfare state and how participation varies across social programs and states, as well as by race, drawing on theories of social welfare rights-claiming and system avoidance. In so doing, I provide the first nationwide estimates of the extent to which previously incarcerated adults use social safety net resources. I find that participation in welfare programs varies with incarceration history, program structure, and race. Rather than finding patterns consistent with system avoidance, I find that previously incarcerated White Americans seem to engage in active rights claiming, participating in public assistance programs more than similarly eligible never-incarcerated counterparts. All formerly incarcerated individuals, however, have limited access to more generous social insurance programs, and the shift to an increasingly employment-based social safety net seems likely to further limit access to the welfare state for the growing population of Americans leaving prison.     

公立学校教师双重法律身份之定位及意义

教师法律身分与教师享有的权利内容及保障制度密切相关,我国大陆地区目前的相关教师法律规范对于教师的法律身分界定不甚明确,从而直接导致了教师游离于劳动法和公务员法的保护之外。本文中,笔者首先以列举教师维权中的困惑来引出教师法律身份如何定位这一课题,然后对我国台湾地区学者关于教师法律身份的不同观点进行了简要介绍,其次通过对教师的劳动者身份和公务员身份进行分析,提出了教师应为特殊劳动者兼特殊公务员的观点,最后着重阐述了定位教师的双重法律身份在立法完善及法律适用上的重大指导意义。     

Public investment in private problems: legal aid and the family justice system

This paper examines findings from the Legal Aid Board Research Unit's Case Profiling Study in the light of the current reform programmes for both legal aid and family law. The findings relate to over 650 legally aided family cases including divorce, separation, ancillary relief and Children Act 1989 applications. The main aim of the study was to gain a better understanding of what is currently funded by the legal aid fund. Costs have been related to stages of cases and to the strategies employed by solicitors. Finally, I comment on the future role of legal aid in family law, suggesting that, to a large extent, public investment will be maintained. Remuneration of service providers will evolve as systems of contracting are introduced in January 2000. There will be continued emphasis on family mediation as an alternative method of dispute resolution. However, cases involving issues relating to children and their welfare will remain within the scope of public support. Domestic violence and other emergency issues will also merit high priority. Although there will be extensive changes in other areas of legal aid, family law appears to remain relatively unscathed.     

Use of the dead body in healthcare and medical training: mapping and balancing the legal rights and values

By exploring the central legal principles and issues regarding usage of the dead body in healthcare and especially in medical training, this article aims at drawing some general conclusions on the legal status of the dead body and the protection of the deceased's integrity, dignity and autonomy. The article demonstrates that the use of the cadaveric body for scientific and educational purposes involves a redrawing of the traditional boundaries between the decent and the indecent, making these acts acceptable that would otherwise be regarded as assaults on the sanctity of bodily boundaries. This is made possible by the fact that the underlying principle of dignity is not perceived to be of an absolute nature when applicable to deceased persons.     

试论公益性城市房屋拆迁中政府与拆迁人之间的法律关系

城市房屋拆迁行为从拆迁的目的及用途方面可以分为公益性的房屋拆迁和经营性的房屋拆迁.在公益性的房屋拆迁中.政府与拆迁人之间的法律关系历来存在争议,一种观点认为,这两者之间是行政委托关系;另一种观点认为,两者之间是行政合同关系.通过对两种类型的法律关系进行比较及系统分析后,笔者认为,公益性的房屋拆迁中政府与拆迁人之间应为行政合同法律关系.     

Liability and food safety provision: Empirical evidence from the US

Recent environmental and food safety incidents are bringing attention to regulatory regimes and their effects on care provision. This article investigates the effects of the application of liability regimes with punitive damages in the reduction of food contamination episodes in the United States from 1990 to 2000. The main result is that the application of strict liability laws allowing claims of punitive damages decreases in a statistically significant way the number of food safety incidents. Statistical results show that states allowing claims of punitive damages are between 15% and 30% less likely to suffer food safety incidents.     

Trade marks, language, and the net

The rise in the popularity of the internet has fuelled a boomin cross-border communication, and brand owners have both sufferedand profited as legal systems have struggled to keep up. Ifa Singaporean entity advertises its goods on the internet, canit infringe a French registered trade mark? Does it matter ifthe Singaporean website is in French? After several halting starts, many of the     

A comparison of student legal issues perceptions held by chief student and chief legal affairs officers: a study of metropolitan universities in the US

This study explored the similarities and differences of the perceptions held by chief legal and chief student affairs officers with regard to student legal issues. The study follows an earlier project published by Education and the Law (9(1), pp. 41‐49) which solely examined the perceptions of chief legal affairs officers. In the present study, there was a significant difference in the perceptions of chief student affairs and chief legal affairs officers with regard to which student legal issues will be litigated in the next 10 years. Chief student affairs and chief legal affairs officers prepare for student legal issues in a very similar fashion. Both officers make use of legal conferences, student affairs conferences, continuing education, and professional literature. There appears to be many chief student affairs officers who attend legal conferences and chief legal affairs officers who attend student affairs conferences in order to better prepare for future student legal issues.     

Creating problems as part of the "solution": the JCAHO Sentinel Event Policy, legal issues, and patient safety

The recently reported number of patient deaths attributable to medical errors is staggering. In response to this crisis, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations ("JCAHO") proposed its Sentinel Event Policy. The policy mandates self-reporting by hospitals accredited by the JCAHO. This Article argues that the JCAHO's policy shows an inattention to the legal realities of discovery and absence of immunity. Until the JCAHO addresses these issues, self-reporting will have limited success. This Article suggests that to promote patient safety, self-regulatory reports should go to a neutral, nonsanctioning third party, an approach adopted from aviation's highly successful reporting system.