Hopkins, UB School of Law Announce Collaboration
February 15, 2011
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
The University of Baltimore School of Law and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine will jointly launch what is believed to be the nation's first academic center for medicine and law that focuses on the health care provider.
The center, expected to open in July, will foster meaningful collaboration between the two professions, so that doctors will better understand the legal issues that affect their daily practice while lawyers will gain a greater appreciation for the real-world issues involved in the practice of medicine.
Phillip J. Closius, dean of the School of Law, said the school is pleased to collaborate with the university's School of Medicine to establish the center.
"The opportunity to collaborate with the best medical school in the world is extremely exciting for our faculty and students. We believe that the serious health care problems we face can best be resolved in an environment which emphasizes cooperation and mutual respect between doctors and lawyers," Closius said. "This new center will provide a focal point for creatively resolving the legal issues which daily confront the medical practitioner."
Frederick Levy, a Johns Hopkins emergency doctor, who also holds a law degree, will serve as the senior co-director of the new center. Gregory Dolin, also a physician and attorney, will serve as the other co-director. Dolin will join the faculty of the University of Baltimore School of Law later this year.
Levy said the center comes at an important crossroads, as doctors are increasingly faced with keeping up with court rulings and state and regulatory changes that affect their practice of medicine, while lawyers are generally unfamiliar with the complex challenges that doctors must deal with on a day-to-day basis.
"The new center's goal will be to promote more understanding between the two professions. In today's world, doctors and lawyers are used to facing each other in a courtroom," said Levy, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins. "This center will be aimed at shifting some of the focus from the courtroom to the classroom."
Levy said the center will be unique: While some existing health law centers focus on either law students or have a policy or public health concentration, the UB-Hopkins collaboration will highlight the health provider and explore the ways that clinicians and attorneys interact with and understand each another.
Among the initiatives that the center expects to develop:
- graduate-level training and educational programs in legal medicine for attorneys and physicians
- a set of core competencies in law and medicine for health care providers
- the nation’s first peer-reviewed journal in law and medicine
- health law policy and position statements
In addition to research publications and other national platforms, the center will promote and publicize its work via its website, which is expected to also be up by July. Finally, the center will sponsor regional and national symposia and conferences on a variety of key health law topics, including:
- access to health care
- patient safety
- medical malpractice and tort reform
- health insurance reimbursement
- bioethics
- informed consent
- disaster medicine
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Public Affairs and the Merrick School of Business.