Justice Speaks: September 14, 2011
Powers for Good: Medical-Legal Partnerships to Fight Poverty
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
12:50–1:50
p.m.
Room W402
Click here to watch video of this event.
Paul Testa, Attending, Department of Emergency Medicine Bellevue Hospital Center / NYU Langone Medical Center New York University School of Medicine
Randy Retkin, Director and Founder of LegalHealth, New York Legal Assistance Group
Moderated by: Eberle Schultz Bassani, 2011–2012 Carbonell Law and Policy Fellow, Justice Action Center, New York Law School
The first Justice Speaks lunch of the semester focused on partnershps between medical and legal professionals to address the non-medical determinants of health for low-income populations. Across the country, doctors and lawyers work together to identify and "treat" the social and legal issues that effect the long-term health of indigent populations, such as access to social services, public assistance, housing, and other poverty law issues. Beyond direct services, lawyers also advocate for broad policy changes that can improve the health outcomes at the community level and beyond.
The panelists discussed: how doctors and lawyers work together on a regular basis to provide holistic services for their patient/client, the successes and challenges of such a model, and the increasing role law students play in their work.
Continuing Legal Education
(CLE)
This program was approved for one hour of CLE
credit in professional practice for both transitional and non-transitional
attorneys.
About the Speakers:
Paul Testa, M.D., J.D.,
M.P.H., Attending, Department of Emergency Medicine Bellevue Hospital
Center / NYU Langone Medical Center New York University School of
Medicine
Paul Testa is a member of the faculty at NYU School of
Medicine with the Department of Emergency Medicine. He provides emergency
care and supervises resident physicians at Bellevue Hospital, NYU Langone
Medical Center and the Hospital for Joint Diseases. His academic research
relates to assessing the law as a determinant of health and health-care
utilization. He lectures on the intersection of law and medicine and has
published research on federal laws to emergency care and pre-hospital
systems. Mr. Testa is currently a member of the Advisory Board for
LegalHealth, a division of the New York Legal Assistance Group. Prior to
academic medicine, he practiced as an attorney in New York and Boston,
concentrating in health-care, employment, and transactional law. He is a
graduate of Harvard School of Public Health (M.P.H.), Dartmouth Medical
School (M.D.) and Boston College Law School (J.D.).
Randye Retkin, J.D., Director and Founder of
LegalHealth, New York Legal Assistance Group
Randye Retkin is
Director and Founder of LegalHealth. Prior to joining NYLAG, she served as
Director of Legal Services for the Gay Men's Health Crisis, the nation's
oldest and largest organization serving people with HIV/AIDS. She has
consulted on projects addressing the needs of people with breast cancer,
multiple sclerosis, asthma, and other chronic illnesses, including a
project to improve access to information about, and the navigation of, New
York City's managed care system. Ms. Retkin is nationally recognized for
fostering collaboration among professionals who work with the chronically
ill, and for helping these people access medical and legal care. She is a
founder of the New York Immigration Coalition and co-author of New York's
Standby Guardianship law. She recently co-authored "How Bioethics Can
Enrich Medical-Legal Collaborations," published in the Journal of Law,
Medicine and Ethics (Volume 38.4 Winter 2010). She also co-authored
"Medical-Legal Partnership: Collaborating with Lawyers to Identify
and Address Health Disparities," published in the Journal of General
Internal Medicine (2010; 25 [Suppl2]: 136–9).
Subscribe to our mailing list below receive updates on news, publications, and upcoming events, including CLE:
