Right to Try: Promise vs Reality in Cancer Care Right to Try can allow certain patients with life-threatening conditions access to investigational treatments, but after almost 8 years, the pathway appears to be rarely used in oncology.

🍔 🕳️ Right to Try “has been mostly a nothing burger,” said Christopher Robertson.

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/...

Table 1 from the paper, summary of recent studies, methods, and findings.

Are surgeries on women REALLY reimbursed at 30% lower rates than equivalent surgeries on men? Yep that's the conclusion of our new paper, and the discrimination impacts physician training and safety for patients. Check out the paper (& LMK if you need full text).

journals.lww.com/greenjournal...

Reimbursement Parity: How Sex-Based Valuations Harm Patients and Increase Costs

⚖️ Reimbursement Parity: How Sex-Based Valuations Harm Patients and Increase Costs — Join us for this Online Congressional Briefing.

I'm speaking with phenom surgeons and patients.

Come, and ask your Member of Congress to send a staffer to learn.

us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

The First AI Drug Prescriber This Viewpoint explores the entry of AI into clinical care, the role of the US Food and Drug Administration, and the associated legal, public health, and medical implications.

Here we go! AI prescribing drugs, without a human in the loop. Utah says now is the time. I'd like some standard data validation, but oh well. It will prolly work out fine.

Check out my new @jama.com piece with Dan Aaron. If you need full text access LMK.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

The Lifesaving Potential of Opioid Abatement Funds This Viewpoint explores how financial settlements related to the US opioid epidemic are being spent and how the funds could be used on potentially lifesaving interventions.

HOW TO SAVE LIVES. $57B in opioid settlement funds are being distributed, but much on things like police drones and dance parties. In @jama.com, we argue for evidence-based abatement to save lives: Medication asst treatment, naloxone, and independent oversight.

Read: doi.org/10.1001/jama...

In 2 weeks! CUPACon 2026 on current topics in expanded access, presented by NYU Working Group on Compassionate Use & Preapproval Access. Feat Richard Pazdur, Andrew Lo, @hollylynchez.bsky.social @profcrobertson.bsky.social, Alison Bateman-House, and others. Fantastic agenda, workshops, networking.

Millions of Americans are skipping cancer screenings because they don't know they cost $0 out-of-pocket. New study with Wendy Epstein proves that info works. We're looking for partners 🤝 & funders 💵 to scale up and save lives. 🚀

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...

Professors: Here are the life-and-death stakes of the debate over Affordable Care Act subsidies Access to comprehensive health coverage can determine whether people live or die.

Gift link so you can access full text:
www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/o...

Professors: Here are the life-and-death stakes of the debate over Affordable Care Act subsidies Access to comprehensive health coverage can determine whether people live or die.

New essay with Wendy Epstein explains the life-or-death stakes in the debate about whether to extend Obamacare subsidies or shift Americans to big cost-exposures. For the full argument, also see my book, Exposed (2019, Harvard U Press).

www.chicagotribune.com/2025/12/08/o...

sent by direct message; thanks for your interest

New Guidance on Responsible Use of AI This Viewpoint discusses new guidance on responsible use of artificial intelligence.

New @jama.com paper on governance of AI in hospitals. Important new guidance while we have no state or federal licensure of AI tools. But big burdens on small hospitals.

With IG Cohen and S Palmieri of @petrieflomcenter.bsky.social

LMK if you need full text.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

New paper out in @nejm.org explaining how First Amendment rights to religion can be used as a shield to protect public health interventions, such as safe-injection sites, against legal challenge. @benjaminabarsky.bsky.social +Caplan-Bricker
LMK if you need full text.
www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Save the date! Jan 23-24 BU is hosting the Compassionate Use and Pre-Approval Working Group meeting, CUPACon 2026!

Health insurance subsidy standoff pits affordable care for millions against federal budget constraints Short-term renewals of policies such as the ACA subsidies set up repeated battles in Congress.

NYT says the shutdown is about "an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits." No, the enhanced credits were created in 2021 & extended in 2022 to go ABOVE the limits set by ACA. If/when these credits expire, we go back to ACA levels. Still, deadly.

theconversation.com/health-insur...

The Ethics of Industry-Funded Speakers’ Bureaus It is often said that a business without marketing is dead. But when a medical product is marketed irresponsibly, it is patients who may pay with their lives. In this context, Wieberdink et al1 examin...

Delighted to work with Jennifer Miller to comment on pharma using speakers bureaus. As we write, "In the US health care system, somebody must inform and educate clinicians about new treatments." Is pharma money the best we can do? Check it out.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

interesting that the Federal Judicial Center page on the contempt power seems to be down.

www.fjc.gov/history/work...

still available at Wayback though

web.archive.org/web/20250607...

Here’s what food and drug regulation might look like under the Trump administration Leaders of the FDA have published a list of new priorities for the agency. They want to deliver rapidly-approved cures and "unleash AI."

"Some innovation saves lives; some innovation kills people,” says Robertson.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/13/1...

Absolutely could, but my guess is that Lilly has done a much more careful job of papering over these relationships, which is really all that the doctrine requires. As I teach my students, the corporate practice and medicine doctrine is really now mostly just make-work for lawyers.

Give them this link to save a spot:

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

And if you want to read the research paper, here it is:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Thank you!

...by calling your Members of Congress and asking their legislative staff to attend.

Here is a flyer with more details on the event:

acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:...

Here is the contact information for your Members of Congress:

www.congress.gov/members/find...

Thank you!

This week (Apr29), I am co-convening a Congressional briefing on the huge disparities in payment for surgeries for women and how that leads to really bad outcomes -- lifelong pain, disabilities, and even death. You get what you pay for!

You can help! ....

Eli Lilly opens a new legal front in its battle against compounded GLP-1s Eli Lilly sued four telehealth firms, but it is adopting a new legal strategy in its fight against compounded GLP-1s.

“Licensed professionals are not supposed to be following orders of non-licensed professionals when it comes to clinical care. ... That said [often] the relationships are so close that the corporate practice of medicine doctrine has basically been eviscerated.”

www.statnews.com/pharmalot/20...

Health Law as Private Law Cambridge Core - Medico-Legal, Bioethics and Health Law - Health Law as Private Law

Check out our new book, Health Law as Private Law. In addition to the amazing co-editors and authors -- too many to list here, I am particularly excited to have Alexander Calder on the cover. The book is open-access, so dig in!

www.cambridge.org/core/books/h...

We got some really excellent anonymous peer reviews on the piece, I might mention.

A New Legal Standard for Medical Malpractice From the American Law Institute In 2024, the American Law Institute revised the legal standard for assessing medical negligence. Author Christopher T. Robertson, JD, PhD, of Boston University School of Law joins JAMA Executive Editor Gregory Curfman, MD, to discuss these changes in the first-ever restatement of the law.

Check out the short podcast JAMA recorded with me to discuss the American Law Institute's new Restatement for medical liability.

jamanetwork.com/learning/aud...

Legal Group Issues 'Restatement' of Medical Malpractice Law More emphasis on use of evidence-based care and nationally recognized practice guidelines

The new restatement for medical liability moves towards evidence-based care. I'm quoted as saying, doctors "should not fear liability if they're just practicing good medicine. ... American doctors are probably too scared of liability..."

www.medpagetoday.com/practicemana...

let me know if anyone needs full text access.

A New Legal Standard for Medical Malpractice This Special Communication discusses the changes introduced in the first-ever restatement of the law of medical malpractice by the American Law Institute.

Our new special communication in @jama.com discussing the new restatement on medical liability. The new approach supports physicians who follow the science, rather than blind custom. If you need full text let me know.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

I spent several years working with the California State Bar to understand the racial disparities in the system of attorney discipline, and what we could do about it. Profs Fortney and Zirke have chronicled that work in a new piece:

journals.library.wustl.edu/lawpolicy/ar...

Beyond What We Can See: Evolving Compliance & Ethical Considerations in the Wake of the Weight Loss Medication Revolution

Last week, I made a trip to Loyola Chicago to speak on GLP-1 drugs and off-label use, with vertically-integrated companies. Here is my part, but others include those by @nathancortez.bsky.social @govindpersad.bsky.social who spoke just before me.

luc.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Page...