Health Law Conference 2023

Save the Date for the 2023 Annual Health Law Conference
Friday, April 14, 2023

Health misinformation and disinformation are creating significant harms to public health and health care systems across the globe. The US Office of the Surgeon General has declared health misinformation to be a significant public health challenge.

Misinformation on issues such as vaccinations, masking, abortion, COVID-19, gender affirming care, monkeypox and opioids have spread even quicker with the use of social media and web-based news channels. Such misinformation can exacerbate health inequities and pose problems for health privacy. Law and policy will be instrumental in determining the response to ongoing health misinformation and will most certainly influence how healthcare and public health systems develop strategies promoting science. Efforts to stem the spread of misinformation implicate many areas of law, including technology and privacy law, the First Amendment, tort law, FTC law and professional licensing.

>>Download Annual Health Law Conference Flyer

Keynote Bio

Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized physician-scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development. He is dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and professor of pediatrics and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also the co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) and Texas Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair of Tropical Pediatrics. Among his many honors and awards, he was named by FORTUNE magazine as one of the 34 most influential people in healthcare in 2017. In 2022, Dr. Hotez and his colleague Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to develop and distribute a low-cost COVID-19 vaccine to people of the world without patent limitation.

Friday, April 14, 2023

Hosted in collaboration with the Northeastern University Law Review (NULR), authors will present on papers to be published in an upcoming issue of the Law Review.

	Conference Schedule
8:30 AM	220 Dockser Hall Doors Open - Light Breakfast
9:00-9:15 AM	Welcome – James Hackney Dean, Northeastern University School of Law Wendy Parmet Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Health Policy and Law, Northeastern University School of Law; Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs
9:15-10:30 AM	Keynote Speaker – Dr. Peter Hotez Dean, National School of Tropical Medicine; Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology, Baylor College of Medicine
10:30 AM -12:00 PM	Paper Presentations – Introduction by Brook Baker Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law; Honorary Research Fellow, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa Oliver J. Kim Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh School of Law *The Role of State Boards of Medicine in the Dissemination of Medical Misinformation* Wesley Hartman, Sabrina Adler and Alexis Etow ChangeLab Solutions *Public Health Law: A Framework for Addressing Misinformation and Health Equity* Leo Beletsky, Katie McCreedy, Sunyou Kang, Sean McCormick and Julia Winett The Action Lab at the Center for Health Policy and Law, Northeastern University School of Law *Misinformation and the Legal and Ethical Debate on Involuntary Commitment for Substance Use Disorder* Rebecca S. Feinberg Teaching Associate Professor, De Paul University *Crisis Pregnancy Centers — Falsehoods and the Religious Practice of Medicine*
12:00- 1:00 PM	Lunch (lounge area outside of 220 Dockser Hall)
1:00-2:15 PM	Concurrent Sessions I Professional Regulations — 42 Dockser Hall Claudia Haupt Associate Professor of Law and Political Science, Northeastern University School of Law; Affiliate Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School Carl Coleman (virtual) Professor of Law; Academic Director, Division of Online Learning, Seton Hall Law Timothy Caulfield (virtual) Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy; Professor, Faculty of Law and School of Public Health; and Research Director, Health Law Institute, University of Alberta Sonja Rasnussen Professor of Genetic Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Misinformation Regarding Abortion — 44 Dockser Hall Wendy Parmet (moderator) Matthews Distinguished University Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Health Policy and Law, Northeastern University School of Law; Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs Aziza Ahmed Professor of Law; R. Gordon Butler Scholar in International Law; Co-Director, Boston University Law Program in Reproductive Justice, Boston University School of Law Caroline Corbin (virtual) Professor of Law, University of Miami Patty Skuster Beck Chair in Law, Temple Law School; Fellow, Center for Public Health Law Research Torts — 46 Dockser Hall Richard Daynard (moderator) University Distinguished Professor of Law; President, Public Health Advocacy Institute, Northeastern University School of Law Dorit Rubinstein Reiss Professor of Law and the James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation, UC College of the Law (formerly known as UC Hastings) Wes Henricksen Associate Professor of Law, Barry University School of Law
2:15-2:30 PM	Break
2:30-3:45 PM	Concurrent Sessions II First Amendment and Social Media — 42 Dockser Hall Jonathan Kahn (moderator) Professor of Law and Biology, Northeastern University School of Law Tomer Kenneth JSD Candidate, New York University; Fellow, Information Law Institute Ana Rutschman Professor of Law, Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law Scott Wilkens Senior Counsel, Knight First Amendment Institute, Columbia University Trans Health and Misinformation — 44 Dockser Hall Andrew Cohen (moderator) Director and Lead Attorney, Access to Care and Coverage Team, Health Law Advocates Dallas Duncar Chief Executive Officer, Transhealth; Faculty Member, University of Virginia School of Nursing, Columbia University and MHG Institute for Health Professions Heather Walter-McCabe Associate Professor of Law and Social Work; Faculty Director, Master of Studies in Law Program, Wayne State University Drugs and Drug Policy Misinformation — 46 Dockser Hall Leo Beletsky (moderator) Professor of Law and Health Sciences; Faculty Director, The Action Lab at the Center for Health Policy and Law, Northeastern University School of Law Nab Dasgupta Senior Scientist; Injury Prevention Research Center Innovation Fellow, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University North Carolina Chapel Hill Mason Marks (virtual) Senior Fellow and Project Lead, Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, Harvard Law School Anne Rancourt (virtual) Chief, Communications Branch, Office of Science Policy and Communications, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health Rachel Winograd Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Hosted in collaboration with:
Northeastern University Law Review