Law’s Role in Restoring Trust in Medicine

A forthcoming article by Maxwell J. Mehlman, Director of the Law-Medicine Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, examines the role law plays in renewing patient trust in physicians. Mehlman remarks that in recent years, the practice of medicine has been losing its commitment to individual patient welfare. Physicians are disloyal to patients through practices such as accepting kick-backs from drug companies or engaging in bedside rationing. Mehlman proposes laws that protect physicians who refuse to engage in disloyal conduct and laws that allow patients to sue disloyal physicians for breach of fiduciary duties.

See Maxwell J. Mehlman, Can Law Save Medicine?, Case Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2015-15 (2015). [Full text available on SSRN]