Need for patients' rights debated
Brittany Rehmer
Issue date: 3/25/08 Section: News
Health law experts called for greater insurance company accountability and the protection of patients' rights, as medicine expands into biotechnology and genetic research, at a conference yesterday afternoon.
The Boston University School of Law and School of Public Health cohosted the conference, which featured experts in bioethics, medical malpractice, health insurance and patient rights. About 30 professors, LAW and SPH graduate students met in the George Sherman Union Conference Room for the hot-topic debate.
"Health law is interdisciplinary," said Northeastern University law professor Wendy Parmet. It should be used as a tool to promote human health and must "follow the evolution of the sciences" to do so, she said.
As medicine and biotechnology advance, health law needs to keep up to provide the best protection for patients, Parmet said. To ensure corporations and institutions, such as insurance companies and hospitals, take full responsibility for their medical practices, health law advocates must "draw from multiple fields of the law" and integrate health care economics into the nation's health care system, she said.
Barry Furrow, a Drexel University law professor, spoke about hospitals' role as institutions in the health care system, stressing system accountability.
"We shouldn't blame [medical failure] all on doctors," Furrow said.
Danielle Delosh, an SPH graduate student, said she agreed with Furrow's notion that hospital boards need to take more responsibility for their mistakes.
"Doctors have a professional and moral responsibility," Delosh said. "But an institution has the responsibility to maintain its integrity."
Jen Lunsford, a second-year LAW student student, said she disagreed.
"I don't know how you would do that practically," Lunsford said. "Hospital boards usually deal with the strategic and financial planning . . . the business end."
She said she thinks it would be difficult to make a hospital board that does not directly deal with medical issues and problems responsible for doctors' mistakes.
The Boston University School of Law and School of Public Health cohosted the conference, which featured experts in bioethics, medical malpractice, health insurance and patient rights. About 30 professors, LAW and SPH graduate students met in the George Sherman Union Conference Room for the hot-topic debate.
"Health law is interdisciplinary," said Northeastern University law professor Wendy Parmet. It should be used as a tool to promote human health and must "follow the evolution of the sciences" to do so, she said.
As medicine and biotechnology advance, health law needs to keep up to provide the best protection for patients, Parmet said. To ensure corporations and institutions, such as insurance companies and hospitals, take full responsibility for their medical practices, health law advocates must "draw from multiple fields of the law" and integrate health care economics into the nation's health care system, she said.
Barry Furrow, a Drexel University law professor, spoke about hospitals' role as institutions in the health care system, stressing system accountability.
"We shouldn't blame [medical failure] all on doctors," Furrow said.
Danielle Delosh, an SPH graduate student, said she agreed with Furrow's notion that hospital boards need to take more responsibility for their mistakes.
"Doctors have a professional and moral responsibility," Delosh said. "But an institution has the responsibility to maintain its integrity."
Jen Lunsford, a second-year LAW student student, said she disagreed.
"I don't know how you would do that practically," Lunsford said. "Hospital boards usually deal with the strategic and financial planning . . . the business end."
She said she thinks it would be difficult to make a hospital board that does not directly deal with medical issues and problems responsible for doctors' mistakes.
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