Washington state courts publish public health emergency bench book

A number of jurisdictions have published bench guides for dealing with public health emergencies. The most recent of which I am aware comes from the courts in the state of Washington. Their Public Health Emergency Bench Book (HTML) (PDF) is a tidy little guide that provides a good checklist for any other court system considering what procedures are available during a public health emergency, as

NY Times article on the pervasive -- and perverse -- presence of IRBs on campus

Today's article is more about nonmedical research that is subject to IRB review and occasional veto, but it is interesting as a cultural marker that shows the spreading influence of the medical model of consent (and the growing pushback thereto).

Second Champaign hospital loses its exempt status

Health Business Policy has a news flash that the Champaign County (IL) "Board of Review reports that the Illinois Department of Revenue (“DOR”) has revoked the property tax exemption of a second hospital in Champaign-Urbana, the Carle Foundation Hospital in Champaign, Illinois, agreeing with the original recommendation filed by the Board of Review to the Illinois DOR in the spring of 2005."

Everything you always wanted to know about nanotechnology but were afraid to ask

Health lawyer Alan Goldberg alerted me to these nanotech-related publications from EPA:EPA's Science Policy Council's Feb. 15 white paper (pdf);EPA fact sheetEPA's nanotech web pageIf you're coming to the nanotech party a little late, a good place to start would be the federal government's National Nanotechnology Initiative:The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) is a federal R&D program

Lethal injection: what does the physicians' non-role portend?

Sunday's NY Times Magazine had an article by Elizabeth Weil on the boomlet of public and official opinion that is starting to cohere against the administration of the death penalty, in states that still have it, by lethal injection. Two articles in the past year by Atul Gawande (one in the New England Journal of Medicine and one in Nature) focus specifically on the role of physicians in such

AHLA's Health Lawyers Weekly (Feb. 9)

From the 9 February issue of AHLA's Health Lawyers Weekly:Top StoriesPresident Bush Issues FY 2008 Budget, Calls For Substantial Medicare, Medicaid ReductionsPresident Bush issued his fiscal year (FY) 2008 budget proposal this week, calling for roughly $101 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid over five years. Full Story CMS Reports More Medicare Part D Beneficiaries Using Generic

Texas' HPV vaccination mandate: upon further reflection . . . .

The Saturday Times printed some interesting reactions to that paper's editorial support for the executive order by Texas Gov. Rick ("The Haircut") Perry that requires girls to receive HPV vaccinations before they would be allowed to enter sixth grade:Although you note the “opt out” approach taken by Gov. Rick Perry of Texas in which vaccination is required but parents can seek an exemption for

Hospice - rethought and revised

There's a nice article in today's NY Times about hospice care and the ways in which it's being reimagined and revised to encourage its use by more patients and at an earlier stage in their illness. The key change is the option of continuing curative treatments while enrolled in hospice, which (i) makes hospice available to those who aren't ready to give up such treatments and (ii) reduces the