Interdisciplinary Approach Attacks Breast Cancer
Law and Health Care Program 0
0 Director and Marjorie Cook, Professor Karen Rothenberg, will spend this academic year, at the National Institutes of , Health.
GOLDSTEIN HONORED AT
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During the 1995-96 academi c
yea r, Ka ren Ro th enberg,
Marjorie Cook Professo r of Law
and Director of th e School of
Law's Law and Health Care
Program, is serving as special
assistant to th e directo r of th e
Office of Research on Women 's
H ealth at th e National In stitutes
of H ealth under an Interage ncy
Profess ional Agreem ent. While
at N IH, she w ill fo cus on legal
and ethical iss ues such as
wo m en 's inclusion in clinical tri
als and geneti c testin g issues.
Address in g the public poli
cy, legal and ethical iss ues sur
rounding breas t cancer is an
impo rtant part of Professo r
Roth enberg's ass ignm ent. Not
o ne of health care's success sto
ri es, breast cancer is the leading
ca use of cancer death in women
aged 35 to 54. D espi te greater
use of ea rly detectio n proce
dures, in cid ence rates are climb
ing, as are numbers of diagnosis
and negligence suits. So, too,
are th e co mpl ex legal a nd ethical
iss ues raised by breas t ca nce r di s
ease.
O utrage at th e lack of
progress in co mbattin g th e dis
ease led to a 2.6 million strong
petiti o n dri ve in 19 93, ca llin g
on Presi dent C linton for a "plan
to end the breast ca ncer epid em
ic." In response, th e National
Action Plan on Breas t Cancer
(NAPBC) evo lved w ith input
from a vari ety of lay and pro
fessional peo pl e, and addresses
health care delivery, resea rch ,
and po licy iss ues.
T he pl an proposed actions
in the areas of health care deliv
ery, research a nd poli cy,
including improvin g access to
heal th services, expanding the
scope a nd breadth of biom ed
ical a nd behav ioral resea rch
activities, and increas ing th e
pa rti cipati o n of advocacy
groups in policy decision mak
in g. The pl a n also es rablished a
nati o nal tas k force to eva luate
progress and identi fY new
opportunities. Professo r
Rothenberg stated , "An inter
disciplinary viewp o int is esse n
ti al when considering changes
in public po li cy."
To help focu s th at debate,
Roth enberg orga nized a day
long sy mposium , "Breast
Cancer: Co ntroversies a nd
Challenges, " held M ay 24,
199 5, and a ttended by about
100 health care, legal and social
service profess ionals. Fea tured
speakers were Frances M.
Visco , JD , President of th e
National Breast Ca ncer
Coalition, a nd Dr. Vivian W.
Pinn , who directs the Office of
Resea rch on Wom en 's Health
at N IH . In additi o n to
Professor Rothenb erg, facu lry
spea kers from the U nivers iry of
Maryland a t Baltimore we re
Drs. Trudy Bush, Kay
Di ckerson , Lauren Schnaper,
and Ellen Si lb ergeld from the
School of Medicine, Dr. Ja nice
Phillips from the School of
N ursin g, and Dr. Juliann e
Okray from the School of
Social Work.
Professo r Roth enberg has
just co mpl eted an anal ys is of
sta te legisl ati ve approaches to
genetic info rm ati o n a nd heal th
in surance fo r the N APB C and
National Cenrer o f Ge nom e
Resea rch at N IH. Both the
success of th e breas t ca nce r con
ference and Rothenberg's wo rk
at N IH emph asize the impor
tan ce of an interdisc iplin a ry
app roach to chan gin g public
po li cy. Rothenberg says, " It
wo uld be imposs ibl e to address
lega l a nd ethi cal co ncern s w
ithout co ntinu ed input from
ph ys icians , nurses,
epidemiologists, advocates and o th ers.
The co mpl ex ity of these iss ues
dema nds a n interdi sc iplinary
solution. "
j udie Schwartz contributed to
this article.
'38 received an honorary
degree at University of
mencement ceremonies in
presented Goldstein for the
honor, citing his long years of
service to Maryland and to the (...truncated)