Christopher Robertson
@profcrobertson.bsky.social
6.8K followers 980 following 34 posts

Law prof at Boston University. Health law, empirical methods, judgment and decision making.

Christopher Tarver Robertson is a specialist in health law working at the intersection of law, philosophy and science. His research explores how the law affects decision making in domains of scientific uncertainty and misaligned incentives, which he calls "institutional epistemology." Robertson is professor, N. Neal Pike Scholar, and Associate Dean at Boston University. He is affiliated faculty with the Petrie Flom Center for Health Care Policy, Bioethics and Biotechnology at Harvard Law School. His work includes tort law, bioethics, the First Amendment, and corruption in healthcare and politics. His legal practice has focused on complex litigation involving medical and scientific disputes. .. more

Economics 36%
Public Health 17%
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profcrobertson.bsky.social
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...
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...
jamanetwork.com

profcrobertson.bsky.social
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...
www.fjc.gov

profcrobertson.bsky.social
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.

profcrobertson.bsky.social
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!
Adobe Acrobat
acrobat.adobe.com

profcrobertson.bsky.social
...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!
Adobe Acrobat
acrobat.adobe.com

profcrobertson.bsky.social
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! ....

profcrobertson.bsky.social
“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...
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.
www.statnews.com

profcrobertson.bsky.social
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...
Health Law as Private Law
Cambridge Core - Medico-Legal, Bioethics and Health Law - Health Law as Private Law
www.cambridge.org

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

profcrobertson.bsky.social
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...
Legal Group Issues 'Restatement' of Medical Malpractice Law
More emphasis on use of evidence-based care and nationally recognized practice guidelines
www.medpagetoday.com

profcrobertson.bsky.social
let me know if anyone needs full text access.

profcrobertson.bsky.social
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...
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.
jamanetwork.com

profcrobertson.bsky.social
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...
Beyond What We Can See: Evolving Compliance & Ethical Considerations in the Wake of the Weight Loss Medication Revolution
luc.hosted.panopto.com

emorylawjournal.bsky.social
New in ELJ: "Structural Sex Discrimination: Why Gynecology Patients Suffer Avoidable Injuries and What the Law Can Do About It" by @profcrobertson.bsky.social, Annabel Kupke, and Dr. Louise P. King.

scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/elj/vol74/is...

profcrobertson.bsky.social

Check out the new podcast featuring our work on structural sex discrimination in gynecology.

shows.acast.com/6666be8ab6f3...

And the paper:

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

profcrobertson.bsky.social
In another peer-rev paper, we have replicated our landmark finding that JD-Next exam has predictive validity = to LSAT but without the huge racial disparities. Now 50+ law schools are using JD-Next to admit diverse classes of law students.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

profcrobertson.bsky.social
If you're talking about suing a prosecutor without mentioning immunity, you might be missing something.

profcrobertson.bsky.social
Today some of the SupCt are gonna pretend that doctors are harmed when FDA merely allows them to prescribe a drug. Some of the justices really want to say that fetuses have standing instead, but the justices don't think the country is fully ready for that theocratic premise. Yet.

profcrobertson.bsky.social
Mind-boggling to see the Right in the SupCourt today asking it to stop the FDA from allowing access to treatments. An inversion of 50+ years of rhetoric about govt interfering with the doctor-patient relationship and medical liberty. Oh well. "Agencies bad" is a simpler msg.

profcrobertson.bsky.social
Yesterday I spoke @ industry conf for giving expanded access (EA) to drugs prior to FDA approval (aka "compassionate use"). Politicians have exploited patient desperation by passing a "Right to Try" (RTT) law that also immunizes companies & doctors (who have no liability anyway). My fav slide.

profcrobertson.bsky.social
The Breyer interview seems so naive, arguing as if "originalist" and "textualists" aren't attentive to the consequences of their decisions, as if people flying those flags were somehow actually apolitical and tethered to a neutral history. If only.

profcrobertson.bsky.social
Fascinating study of doctors behaving as businesses (with false views about customer satisfaction that are also deadly).

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

profcrobertson.bsky.social
At some point before AI causes extinction of the Huma race I hope that it will at least read my emails and texts and tell me if I have made a bonehead mistake with calendaring my appointments.

profcrobertson.bsky.social
New paper w phenom coauthors on surgical tools made for big (male) hands; surgeons with smaller hands (typically women) are harmed. How have markets and the law failed to solve the problem?

Need access? LMK.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
alixabeth.bsky.social
TFW Jamelle Bouie films a TikTok in which he calls The Political Value of Time one of his favorite books of political theory from the past few years & goes on to explain & apply several of its core arguments.

Bouie’s Tiktoks are scholarly works of art www.tiktok.com/t/ZT87WJaoN/