What drew you to the law?
The possibility of improving health and health care for many people at once. Medical training focuses on helping individual patients; public policy (like biomedical research) can magnify that effect. I have an optimistic view of the law as bringing out the best of human nature, helping us work together and resolve our differences peaceably and predictably.
What do you enjoy most about teaching?
When students realize that professional formation is about learning together—and that they can contribute as well as receive insights or information. Recently, one of the world’s leading authorities on health policy co-taught a Zoom class with me from his home in Massachusetts (the ease of hosting guests being the best thing about Zoom). When asked what he said was a “great question,” he admitted he didn’t know the answer. It was an empowering moment for the students.
What do you hope students gain from your courses?
The skills and confidence to ask the right questions and to work toward answering them. The self-awareness and the humility to become happy, productive members of a self-governing profession that bears considerable responsibility for the welfare of individuals and communities and nations.
What did you do prior to entering academia?
I worked as a physician-in-training in San Diego and Baltimore, and as a young corporate lawyer in Los Angeles. After I drank from the fire hose of health policy while working briefly in the White House during the national health reform efforts of the early 1990s, I was hooked on improving health care through research, advising, and teaching.
What are you passionate about outside of the law?
Learning new things, including from my artistic young-adult children. I enjoy running (though hip replacements ended my marathon career after 15 races), and friendly games of golf and tennis. I spend a lot of time in coastal New England.
What are your research interests?
My current work emphasizes the importance of principle and ethics to health system improvement, including health equity and access, health care value and efficiency, health professions education and practice, and biomedical innovation. I have a very good track record of framing issues and anticipating debates before they become widely visible, and of assisting others in academic, governmental, scientific, and policy settings with work that might have public benefit.