I really enjoy reading Blog 702. The writing is great, the posts informative. I wish they had a permalink function in their blogging program, but this post is too good not to re-print here in toto.
2/7/07 UPDATE: I got a comment from the folks at Blog 702 and they informed me that they do have a permalink function. My bad. Here it is the link.
"A post by Ted Frank at Point of Law directs us to another post, by Jim Beck and Mark Herrmann at Drug and Device Law, which adverts, in turn, to an article in the December 2006 issue of Neurology entitled "The impact of litigation on neurologic research." The article is authored by two faculty at the Washington University School of Medicine (Drs. Brad A. Racette and Joel S. Perlmutter) and two attorneys (Ann Bradley, internal university counsel, and Carrie A. Wrisberg, a partner in the St. Louis law firm Moser & Marsalek).
We sprang for the $20 that the American Academy of Neurology wanted, before it would let us download the article. Someone not wishing to spend the $20 might get the general flavor from Washington University’s press release. Like the Beck & Herrmann post, the Neurology piece posits that an undue burden is imposed on medical research (or can be) by litigants seeking discovery of the researchers’ data. The authors float the idea of a federally legislated "research scholar privilege" to ameliorate this burden. Indeed, they call such legislation "essential to advancing medical science."
Go to the January 11, 2007 post for the balance of article.
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