EDUCATION

We offer lectures in our HMS elective course and in our CME courses on legal and regulatory issues for clinicians concerned with counseling patients regarding CAM therapies. We also have offered a lecture on informed consent to General Medicine Fellows at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

In addition, an elective course, Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Health Law and Policy (HPM218) is being offered through the Harvard School of Public Health in the Winter Session, 2003.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Health Law and Policy
M. Cohen
Course activities: Lectures, discussions, case studies. One 2-hour session each week.
1.25 cr.

This course introduces students to health law and policy surrounding the integration of “complementary and alternative medical” (CAM) therapies (i.e., therapies historically outside biomedicine, such as chiropractic, acupuncture, massage therapy, and herbal medicine) into mainstream health care. Topics include: definition and prevalence of CAM therapies; theory and practice of major CAM therapies; research methodologies and state of the science; licensing and regulation of CAM providers; professional discipline of physicians offering CAM therapies; credentialing and liability management strategies by health care institutions integrating these therapies; malpractice liability and informed consent issues; federal regulation of (and institutional policy involving) dietary supplements; emerging federal policy and state legislative developments; and related ethical questions. Readings are drawn from medical, public health, and health policy literature, as well as from statutes and cases. Students are expected to write an 8 to 10 page final paper and present a synopsis in class. No previous background in law is required, although HPM 213c and 215d are recommended.