The Law of Patient Innovation

Although the movement for patient empowerment has been under way for decades, patients remain relatively marginalized by medical providers, innovators, and payers. Physicians diagnose and prescribe treatment, innovators endeavor to develop drugs and devices that they can recommend to both physicians and payers, including Medicare. Patients remain in the background, presumed to be passive recipients of breakthroughs that follow this system of discovery and finance. The law is a significant reason why this is so.

This Article outlines the most significant areas of law that need to change to allow patients to innovate in collaborative partnership with their physicians, including the law of tort, human subjects research, healthcare finance, and intellectual property. By identifying these areas, changes and modifications to law may be more easily assessed by both state and federal lawmakers.