Christopher Robertson
@profcrobertson.bsky.social
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%
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...
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.
theconversation.com
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...
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...
jamanetwork.com
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...
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
www.fjc.gov
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/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."
www.technologyreview.com
"Some innovation saves lives; some innovation kills people,” says Robertson.
www.technologyreview.com/2025/06/13/1...
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.
Adobe Acrobat
acrobat.adobe.com
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!
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
...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!
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! ....
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.
www.statnews.com
“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...
www.statnews.com/pharmalot/20...
Health Law as Private Law
Cambridge Core - Medico-Legal, Bioethics and Health Law - Health Law as Private Law
www.cambridge.org
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...
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.
jamanetwork.com
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...
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
www.medpagetoday.com
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...
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.
jamanetwork.com
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...
jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
Addressing Perceived Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Attorney Discipline
Perceived racial and ethnic disparities in attorney discipline threaten public confidence in the legal profession’s fairness and equity. This Article explores whether lawyers of color are subject to a...
journals.library.wustl.edu
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...
journals.library.wustl.edu/lawpolicy/ar...
Beyond What We Can See: Evolving Compliance & Ethical Considerations in the Wake of the Weight Loss Medication Revolution
luc.hosted.panopto.com
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...
luc.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Page...
if need full text, email me ctr00@BU.edu
E-Cigarettes at the Supreme Court — Potential Implications for the FDA and Public Health | NEJM
The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear a case about adolescent e-cigarette use and the FDA’s role in addressing it. A ruling against the FDA could have implications for its authority and for pub...
www.nejm.org
My new NEJM piece on the vaping litigation. One angle that I could only allude to is this: the SCt says that agencies should be subject to presidential control, but here 5thCir dings FDA for flip-flopping when presidency changed. Which is the rule? @medlawdan.bsky.social www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Christopher T. Robertson
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...
scholarlycommons.law.emory.edu/elj/vol74/is...
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....
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....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
If you're talking about suing a prosecutor without mentioning immunity, you might be missing something.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Fascinating study of doctors behaving as businesses (with false views about customer satisfaction that are also deadly).
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...