Petrie-Flom Center

The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School was founded in 2005 through a generous gift from Joseph H. Flom and the Carroll and Milton Petrie Foundation. The Center’s founding mission was to promote interdisciplinary analysis and legal scholarship in these fields. Today, the Center has grown into a leading research program dedicated to the unbiased legal and ethical analysis of pressing questions facing health policymakers, medical professionals, patients, families, and others who influence and are influenced by health care and the health care system. To achieve this goal, the Center fosters a community of leading intellectuals, practitioners, and policymakers from a variety of backgrounds at all stages in their careers, across Harvard University and across the world. **What We Do** The Petrie-Flom Center is currently led by Faculty Director Professor [**I. Glenn Cohen**](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/about/bio/i-glenn-cohen) and Executive Director [**Susannah Baruch.**](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/about/bio/susannah-baruch) The Center’s work generally falls into the following categories: 1. ***Public engagement***, including frequent events and conferences; extensive media commentary; our popular health policy and bioethics blog, [*Bill of Health*](https://blogs.law.harvard.edu/billofhealth), which boasts nearly 18,000 unique monthly users; and our website filled with guides and other resources for the public. 2. ***Academic programs***, including our [post-doctoral fellowship](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/fellows/academic-fellowship), which has generated a [cadre](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/fellows/academic-alumni) of leading health law professors now at top schools around the country; programs for [visitors](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/fellows/visitors) and [senior scholars](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/fellows/senior); a range of curricular contributions and [workshops](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/category/workshops); and various mentorship and writing opportunities for Harvard students, including a coveted [graduate fellowship](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/fellows/student-fellowship). 3. [***Sponsored research***](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/research/overview) collaborations across the university and its affiliated hospitals, and elsewhere, with projects addressing [research regulation and ethics](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/research/catalyst), the [health of professional football players](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/research/fphs), [patient-centered outcomes research](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/research/pcoros), and more, alongside additional collaborations covering [law and neuroscience](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/research/project-on-law-and-applied-neuroscience) and [advanced care and health policy](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/research/advanced-care-and-health-policy). 4. ***Independent [scholarship](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/resources/scholarship)*** and publications by our affiliates, including the peer-reviewed, open-access [*Journal of Law and Biosciences*](https://jlb.oxfordjournals.org/) with partners at Stanford and Duke, and [several books](https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/about/edited-volumes) on cutting edge topics in health policy and bioethics. Topically, our work spans the entire range of issues at the intersection of law and health policy, biotechnology, and bioethics. Among the many issues the Center’s work has covered are health care reform and economics, human subjects research regulation, medical tourism, fragmentation of American health care, conflicts of interest in medicine, religion and health policy, reproductive technology, law and neuroscience, health law and behavioral economics, pharmaceutical and device regulation, and more. Our fellows bring their own areas of focus, ranging from medical innovation to health care finance to medical privacy, to name but a few.