Lisa Radtke Bliss

Medical-Legal Partnership: Impact on Patients With Sickle Cell Disease

OBJECTIVE: To determine the types of legal problems addressed by the Health Law Partnership (HeLP) and the impact of the legal interventions in pediatric patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) or its variants. We hypothesized that an interdisciplinary team that includes lawyers would positively affect the social determinants of health that affect patients with SCD. METHODS: The HeLP database was retrospectively queried for all patients with the diagnosis of SCD or 1 of its variants who had been seen by the lawyers of HeLP between April 2004 and September 2010. Data collected in this cohort of patients included income level of the patient/client, the initial presenting problems, any patient/parent/guardian problems identified during the legal checkup, and the type of legal assistance provided. Estimated annualized financial outcomes were calculated. RESULTS: From April 2004 through September 2010, 71 parents/guardians with 76 children with SCD were referred to the HeLP for legal intervention. Of the 71 parents/guardians, 33 were at <100% of the federal poverty level. There were 106 initial case problems identified in the 71 parents/guardians; 51 of 106 problems were directly related to the child. An additional 93 issues were identified during the legal checkup. Of 106 cases, 99 were closed with 21 resulting in a measurable gain of benefits. CONCLUSIONS: In a cohort of families of children with SCD, incorporating access to legal services as part of the care plan resulted in a positive impact on these patients/parents/guardians. The impact was directly attributable to the intervention of the HeLP.

Can Access to a Medical-Legal Partnership Benefit Patients with Asthma Who Live in an Urban Community?

Approximately one in 10 children in the U.S. has a diagnosis of asthma. African American and low-income children are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma. They are more likely to suffer the worse outcomes because of low socioeconomic status and environmental exposures. A medical-legal partnership is an interdisciplinary collaboration between a medical entity such as a hospital or clinic and a legal entity such as a lawyer, law school, or legal aid society created to address barriers to health care access and limitations to well-being. Addressing the legal concerns of these patients can improve access to medical services, reduce family stress, and address legal concerns that contribute to poor health. The Health Law Partnership (HeLP) is one such medical-legal partnership that provides a holistic, interdisciplinary approach to health care. During the seven-year study period we found both financial (

The Health Law Partnership: A Medical-Legal Partnership Strategically Designed to Provide a Coordinated Approach to Public Health Legal Services, Education, Advocacy, Evaluation, Research, and Scholarship

501,209) and non-financial benefits attributable to interventions by the attorneys at HeLP.

Interprofessional Medical-legal Education of Medical Students: Assessing the Benefits for Addressing Social Determinants of Health.

Low-income children, especially those with chronic disease and other health issues, are among the most vulnerable members of society. The Health Law Partnership, a medical-legal partnership (MLP), was developed to address the legal needs of low-income children and their families living in Georgia and who receive healthcare services from Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta. HeLPs creators understood the importance of proactively addressing the social determinants of childrens health, many of which have legal antecedents and result from illness and health-related complications caused by socioeconomic factors. Four attorneys saw the close link between poverty and poor health, and understood that the law could be used as a tool to help address the devastating effects that social, economic, and environmental problems have on the health of children and their families. To address these effects, they established HeLP. Their goal was to proactively address the legal needs of low-income children. These attorneys embraced the concept of MLP as a way of promoting the health of the community, by both addressing and preventing some of the barriers to good health, and they invited medical professionals to join them. They created an MLP to have maximum impact in four specific areas: (1) direct delivery of public health legal services; (2) education of professional students in multiple disciplines and education of professionals within the healthcare system; (3) advocacy on matters affecting public health; and (4) evaluation, research, and scholarship relating to the impact and efficacy of MLPs and other related topics. This article explains HeLPs four-pronged approach to MLP designed by the three institutional community partners, explores the intentions and benefits of each area, and provides case studies illustrative of the four programmatic components of HeLP.

Preparing Law Students for Global Practice: An Innovative Model for Teaching Lawyering Skills and Social Justice in a Large Enrollment Law Course

PROBLEM Screening tools exist to help identify patient issues related to social determinants of health (SDH), but solutions to many of these problems remain elusive to health care providers as they require legal solutions. Interprofessional medical-legal education is essential to optimizing health care delivery. APPROACH In 2011, the authors implemented a four-session didactic interprofessional curriculum on medical-legal practice for third-year medical students at Morehouse School of Medicine. This program, also attended by law students, focused on interprofessional collaboration to address client/patient SDH issues and health-harming legal needs. In 2011-2014, the medical students participated in pre- and postintervention surveys designed to determine their awareness of SDHs impact on health as well as their attitudes toward screening for SDH issues and incorporating resources, including a legal resource, to address them. Mean ratings were compared between pre- and postintervention respondent cohorts using independent-sample t tests. OUTCOMES Of the 222 medical students who participated in the program, 102 (46%) completed the preintervention survey and 100 (45%) completed the postintervention survey. Postintervention survey results indicated that students self-reported an increased likelihood to screen patients for SDH issues and an increased likelihood to refer patients to a legal resource (P < .001). NEXT STEPS Incorporating interprofessional medical-legal education into undergraduate medical education may result in an increased likelihood to screen patients for SDH and to refer patients with legal needs to a legal resource. In the future, an additional evaluation to assess the curriculums long-term impact will be administered prior to graduation.

Recent Developments in Health Care Law: Culture and Controversy

This article describes how the authors collaborated to create a large enrolment law course that had equally weighed pedagogical goals: to teach Thai law students how to read, understand and communicate legal terms using English, to teach social justice and to teach fundamental lawyering skills employing clinical legal education methodologies. The article demonstrates how such goals can be accomplished in large enrolment courses in which students are unfamiliar with participatory learning models. In the context of discussing innovations in a 300 student Legal English course, the article illustrates how a law course can both impart knowledge and help students develop a wide range of lawyering skills as well as develop their identity as thoughtful, reflective, professional practitioners for whom social justice is a value, regardless of their professional goals.

Clinical Legal Education in Thailand: A Pedagogy Whose Time Has Come

This article reviews recent developments in health care law, focusing on controversy at the intersection of health care law and culture. The article addresses: emerging issues in federal regulatory oversight of the rapidly developing market in direct-to-consumer genetic testing, including questions about the role of government oversight and professional mediation of consumer choice; continuing controversies surrounding stem cell research and therapies and the implications of these controversies for healthcare institutions; a controversy in India arising at the intersection of abortion law and the rights of the disabled but implicating a broader set of cross-cultural issues; and the education of U.S. health care providers and lawyers in the theory and practice of cultural competency.

Exploring Cultural Competence in the Context of Medical-Legal Partnership, Recent Developments in Health Care Law: Culture and Controversy

As a developing country with a growing economy, Thailand needs lawyers who are equipped to serve the growing needs of the country.1 Thailand is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a coalition of countries in Southeast Asia that have agreed to cooperate in multiple areas, including economic integration. As the country continues to grow, a strong legal system and legal profession are essential to its success. Clinical legal education (“CLE”) has long been accepted in other parts of the world as a method for training law students to become competent, ethical professionals. This chapter will describe the implementation of CLE in Thailand. The chapter begins by introducing the Thai legal and legal education systems, and the history of CLE in Thailand. CLE began with the community legal service initiative of a group of Thammasat University female law students in 1949, and continues today through multiple CLE initiatives, many of which are supported through the activities of an NGO, Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia Community Legal Education Initiative2 (“BABSEA CLE”), which began working to introduce CLE throughout the region in 2005.

Medical-Legal Partnerships to Improve the Health and Well-being of Patients: Promising Collaborative Initiatives

This article reviews recent developments in health care law, focusing on controversy at the intersection of health care law and culture. The article addresses: emerging issues in federal regulatory oversight of the rapidly developing market in direct-to-consumer genetic testing, including questions about the role of government oversight and professional mediation of consumer choice; continuing controversies surrounding stem cell research and therapies and the implications of these controversies for healthcare institutions; a controversy in India arising at the intersection of abortion law and the rights of the disabled but implicating a broader set of cross-cultural issues; and the education of U.S. health care providers and lawyers in the theory and practice of cultural competency.

Recent Developments in Health Care Law: Partners in Innovation

This article reviews recent developments in health care law, focusing on the engagement of law as a partner in health care innovation. The article addresses: the history and contents of recent United States federal law restricting the use of genetic information by insurers and employers; the recent federal policy recommending routine HIV testing; the recent revision of federal policy regarding the funding of human embryonic stem cell research; the history, current status, and need for future attention to advance directives; the recent emergence of medical–legal partnerships and their benefits for patients; the obesity epidemic and its implications for the child’s right to health under international conventions.