BU Hosts 48th Annual Health Law Professors Conference.
Timothy Callaghan
BU Hosts 48th Annual Health Law Professors Conference
The School of Public Health and the School of Law co-hosted the prestigious event, which is the leading conference worldwide on the topic of health law.
The 48th Annual Health Law Professors Conference, hosted by the Boston University School of Law and the Boston University School of Public Health, concluded on June 6 and convened leading scholars, practitioners, and students from across the nation in discussions on pressing issues in health law.
This year’s conference introduced new formats, including Discussion Panels, to facilitate deeper engagement among attendees. The schedule featured a diverse array of sessions covering topics such as the legal implications of cannabis and psychedelics, and various discussions on corporate influence in healthcare.
Nicole Huberfeld, the Edward R. Utley Professor of Health Law at BU School of Law and School of Public Health presented during a panel on “Health Care’s Role in Addressing the Social Determinants of Health: Legal Scope, Challenges, and Opportunities.” Huberfeld, chair of the Health Law Program at BU and co-director of the Program on Reproductive Justice, delivered a cautionary message about over-reliance on Medicaid as a panacea.
Even though evidence shows that health is influenced profoundly by social and economic conditions, Huberfeld warned that using Medicaid as the sole remedy for any measure of social ills was a flawed strategy. “If Medicaid is everything, then it’s nothing. If Medicaid is everything, then it becomes a bigger target for the people who would tear it down because they don’t believe that it should exist in the first place,” Huberfeld said.
Timothy Callaghan, an associate professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management at SPH, delivered an insightful look at the pitfalls of our current polarized political landscape with Runaway Polarization Is Making Us Sick. Social Science Could Offer an Antidote. It summarized research he conducted with colleague Matthew Motta, his co-director of the Politics and Health Lab at SPH.
A full list of faculty presenters is available here. The conference featured a plenary panel titled “Leadership Perspectives on Health Law and Policy in a Time of Change,” which provided insights into the evolving landscape of health law and policy, emphasizing the need for adaptive leadership in response to current challenges.
The conference, organized by the American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics (ASLME), took place this year without one of its originators, George Annas, who died May 30 after a brief illness. BU’s early foray into health law in the 1970s made it the prime site for five of the initial seven conferences, including the first conference in 1978. Several presenters noted the passing of Annas, who was considered one of the pioneers of the health law field.