Health law is a broad and dynamic legal arena that encompasses health care delivery and the health care industry, including all of their component parts: providers, insurers, patients, drug companies and researchers. This legal specialty has expanded in part because of the increased complexity of relationships in the health care field and the intense fragmentation of the American health care delivery system. Delivering health care has become unwieldy, given the lack of a comprehensive national health policy and an untidy morass of state and federal regulatory schemes. Lawyers represent the full range of constituencies in the health care system, from injured patients to physician groups trying to work out agreements with large insurers; from drug manufacturers to pharmacies to universities conducting human-subjects research.

Health care is a highly regulated industry, reflecting the billions of federal, state and private dollars spend on the delivery of health care services. Biotechnology, medicine, and the pharmaceutical industries are this region’s primary economic growth markets. The “graying” of America (and Pennsylvania in particular) requires new ways of dealing with the legal and medical problems of the elderly, new ethical problems, new expectations for health care and assisted living, and compliance with a host of federal, state and local laws, ordinances and regulations.

Emerging public-health issues, from bioterrorism to emergency preparedness, add to the increasing demand for attorneys who are conversant with health care-related issues.

As a result, health law has grown from the topic of an occasional seminar to a new legal industry. Law school courses are proliferating as new casebooks pour from the publishers' presses. Major law firms now have health law sections, and boutique health law firms are also common in many cities. At the same time, bioethics has become a major field, promising ethical analyses on topics ranging from medical treatments to scientific research, with some hospitals hiring bioethicists to provide oversight on human subjects research and end-of-life issues.

The purpose of the Health Law Program is to create a community: students; faculty who specialize in health law and health policy; health lawyers as adjunct professors; and members of the legal, nonprofit, and government world who want to think seriously about health policy and what health lawyers and regulators do in a variety of settings. The program works with the Drexel Schools of Medicine and Public Health, and the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. Professors from these programs are affiliated with the Health Law Program, engaging in joint research or teaching projects with members of the law faculty. The Earle Mack School of Law and Drexel’s School of Public Health will soon offer a joint J.D./M.P.H. degree program.

The Health Law Program seeks to advance the study and understanding of health law and policy by supporting research, organizing academic and professional symposia and other events, and making presentations to the public at conferences or through the media. Professional programs organized by the Health Law Program often are eligible for CLE credit in Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions. For information about upcoming events, click here. If you would like to receive notices of upcoming events and other news, please click here.