Law and Biomedicine Lecture Series Focuses on Health Care Reform

National health care reform experts will speak at the Law School this year during a series of lectures sponsored by the Law School's Sadie Lewis Webb Program in Law and Biomedicine.

Speakers from the National Institutes of Health, the American Association for Retired Persons, the Heritage Foundation and Walmart highlight the schedule (below).

Margaret Foster Riley

"It was clear that health care reform was going to be an election issue and that the health system was about to break," said Law School Professor Margaret Foster Riley, who helped organize the lectures.

The lecture series is tied to Riley's yearlong course, Themes in Biomedicine, which features a different theme each year. Last year's inaugural series focused on the Food and Drug Administration, which also faced a crossroads, Riley said. All lectures are podcast on the Law School's Web site.

Riley said she hoped student participants gain "immediate knowledge of major issues involving law and biomedicine but also an interest in law and biomedicine that might motivate careers and interest in the future."

Although the program is sponsored by the Law School, the lectures attract students and faculty from the UVA Medical School and the Darden School of Business. "Part of my goal with the lecture series is to build partnerships with the different schools," Riley said.

Lectures are scheduled for 6 p.m. in Withers-Brown Hall Room 102 on the following dates.

Sept. 18
"Challenges of State-Based Health Reform"
Patricia Lynch, vice president, state government relations services, Kaiser Permanente

Oct. 16
"Underlying Visions and Values - Future Architecture"
Stuart Butler, vice president, domestic and economic policy studies, Heritage Foundation

Nov. 6
"The Election is Over — Now What?"
A discussion led by Carolyn Engelhard, assistant professor of medical education, UVA Department of Public Health Sciences

Nov. 20
"Healthcare, Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America"
Ezekiel Emanuel, chair, Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health

Feb. 19
Susan Dentzer, editor-in-chief, Health Affairs

Dates TBA

American Association for Retired Persons representative

Kate Sullivan-Hare, director, Health Care Policy, Walmart