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SKILL SHARPENER
University of Pennsylvania’s Health Law Program Takes Advantage of Its Surroundings [by Erica Winter] Philadelphia is home to some of the nation’s premier hospitals. It seems only right, therefore, that the University of Pennsylvania Law School offers a highly extensive interdisciplinary program in health law.
The school’s health law program is not
Theodore Ruger last year from Washington
the law school or apply while in their first
based at a center, nor does it come with its
University in St. Louis as another addition to
year. If accepted, law students start taking
own certificate of completion. Students do
its health law faculty. “Health law” can be
MBE courses in their second year. This year,
not have to apply to get into the program
“the legal doctrines that in some way impact
there are nine Penn Law students who are
once they have been accepted by the law
the core relationship of doctor and patient,”
also studying for their MBEs, says Madison.
school. Instead, the health law program is a
he says, or the law which addresses that
concerted effort on the part of the law school
relationship indirectly, through insurers,
Law students studying bioethics can do clini-
to acknowledge and draw on the law school’s
hospitals, public health, or constitutional law
cal rotations in the Hospital of the University
local assets and expand those relationships.
issues.
of Pennsylvania (HUP) or at Philadelphia’s
Over the past few years, the law school has
The constitutional side included in “health
student Holly Fernandez will take advantage
been actively hiring professors who concen-
law” is studied in-depth at Penn through
of this resource next year when she does her
trate on health law, says Kristin Madison,
bioethics, which involves questions of
rotation with HUP’s Bioethics Committee,
Assistant Professor at Penn Law. The school
healthcare privacy, the right to die, and other
whose members respond to hospital physi-
is “trying to take advantage of internal and
constitutional issues in healthcare. Anita Al-
cians’ medical ethics questions. Fernandez
external resources,” Madison says.
len-Castellitto, Henry R. Silverman Professor
will “shadow and learn,” she says, from
of Law, came to Penn four years ago and is
these “philosophers with pagers.”
Children’s Hospital. Second-year Penn Law
Madison, who came to Penn four years ago,
a leading national expert on privacy law and
specializes in legal issues involving health-
bioethics.
care organizations. She explains that “health
Also at Penn is the Wharton School of Business, which has a Health Care Systems De-
law” means different things to different
The goal for students studying health law at
partment. Penn Law students can receive a
people. For example, Madison teaches a
Penn is to shape “lawyers who are knowl-
certificate in business and public policy from
class on the law of health care regulations,
edgeable and sophisticated regarding legal
Wharton while in law school. This program,
which looks at things such as healthcare
issues in healthcare,” says Allen-Castel-
too, requires a separate application but can
fraud under both federal and state laws.
litto. Towards this end, students learn about
be completed concurrently with the J.D.
health law from the entire range of perspecIn addition, larger, more general areas of law
tives, including constitutional, financial,
The law school facilitates this interdisciplin-
touch on healthcare law, Madison explains,
legislative, and ethical.
ary atmosphere with the practical step of letting law students take four elective courses
such as liability or antitrust law and questions of whether these areas of law change
Within that framework, the diversity of the
in other parts of the university. For the MBE,
when applied to healthcare. Medical mal-
University of Pennsylvania’s academic offer-
for example, those law students take one
practice liability is rather well known; less
ings are used to their fullest, whether they
course per semester in bioethics during their
known is the question of vicarious liability,
are contained within the law school or not.
second and third years, and can cross-count
such as whether a hospital is responsible
some of their law school classes towards the
for a doctor’s actions. Anti-trust issues can
The Bioethics Center, which is not part of the
be clear when dealing with corporations, but
law school, is the heart of a master’s degree
possibly less so when dealing with a group of
in bioethics (MBE) that some law students
Students themselves embody the interdisci-
nonprofit hospitals.
pursue simultaneously with their law de-
plinary spirit of the health program at Penn
grees. The MBE is a two-year program; law
Law. Some students take time off from medi-
students can apply for it when they apply to
cal school or even from programs in veteri-
Penn Law brought in Assistant Professor
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master’s degree.
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