Michelle Mello
Professor of Law and Public Health
Department of Health Policy and Management
677 Huntington Avenue
Kresge Building Room 407
Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Phone: 617.432.0217
mmello@hsph.harvard.edu
Harvard Affiliations
Director, Program in Law and Public Health; Chair, HSPH Institutional Review Board; Key Consultant, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation National Program Office in Public Health Law Research
Research Interests
Dr. Mello conducts empirical research into issues at the intersection of law, ethics, and health policy. She is the author of more than 110 articles and book chapters on the medical malpractice system, medical errors and patient safety, research ethics, the obesity epidemic, pharmaceuticals, clinical ethics, and other topics. Dr. Mello is the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Investigator Award in Health Policy Research to study disclosure and compensation of medical injuries, and is currently leading evaluations of two large-scale federal demonstration projects of “disclosure-and-resolution” programs, in which hospitals and liability insurers proactively communicate information about unanticipated care outcomes to patients and families, apologize, and in appropriate cases, proactively offer compensation. She serves as a Key Consultant to the National Program Office of RWJF’s program in Public Health Law Research and recently completed service on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Drug Safety and Post-Marketing Requirements. In 2006, she received the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award from AcademyHealth for exceptional promise for contributions to the field of health services research.
Current and Recent Research Projects
Responding Justly to Patients Injured by Medical Care
This project is examining how policy levers such as mandatory disclosure laws and laws protecting apologies from use in malpractice litigation are affecting the practice of disclosing medical errors and injuries to patients. It is also evaluating several innovative institutional programs that couple disclosures with offers of compensation. More
Design of a Reliable System of Medical Justice
The goal of this study is to provide research to support demonstration projects of an administrative compensation system for medical injury, called “health courts”. The project is investigating issues such as compensation criteria, costs, appropriate damages, constitutionality, and relationship of the system to patient safety. More
RECENTLY COMPLETED:
State Policy Approaches to Foster Uptake of the Human Papillomavirus Vaccine
The major goal of this project was to study the legal and policy approaches that states are taking to fostering uptake of the HPV vaccine. Articles from the project discuss the politics of vaccination policy making and the determinants of policy outcomes, including the role of the HPV vaccine’s manufacturer. More
Ethical Issues in the Pharmaceutical Industry
This project examined a series of legal and ethical challenges confronting the pharmaceutical industry, including issues of drug safety, disclosure of clinical trial data, and relationships with academic researchers. More
Selected Professional Affiliations
Member, Massachusetts Bar
Key Consultant, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Member and past member of Board of Directors, AcademyHealth
Member, Society for Empirical Legal Studies
Honors and Awards
Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award, AcademyHealth
Greenwall Faculty Scholar
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research
Citations for Excellence in Teaching, Harvard School of Public Health
Courses Taught
Public Health Law
Ethical Basis of the Practice of Public Health
Education
J.D., 2000, Yale Law School
Ph.D., 1999, Health Policy and Administration, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
M.Phil., 1995, Comparative Social Research, Oxford University
B.A., 1993, Political Science and Applied Ethics, Stanford University
Selected Publications
Mello MM, Clarridge BR, Studdert DM. Academic medical centers’ standards for clinical-trial agreements with industry. N Engl J Med 2005;352:2202-2210. Read it
Mello MM, Brennan TA. Deterrence of medical errors: theory and evidence for malpractice reform. Texas Law Rev 2002;80:1595-1637.
Studdert DM, Mello MM, Gawande AA, Gandhi TK, Kachalia A, Yoon C, Puopolo AL, Brennan TA. Claims, errors, and compensation payments in medical malpractice litigation. N Engl J Med 2006;354:2024-2033. Read it
Mello MM, Studdert DM, Brennan TA. Obesity–the new frontier of public health law. N Engl J Med 2006;354(24):2601-2610.Read it
Mello MM, Studdert DM. Deconstructing negligence: the role of individual and system factors in causing medical injuries. Georgetown Law J 2008;96:599-623. Read it
Podcasts and Video
Medical Liability: The role of “health courts” in liability reform:http://www.rwjf.org/pr/product.jsp?id=20391
Obesity and Chronic Disease Prevention: How far can employer wellness programs legally go to encourage employees to adopt healthier behaviors?http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/multimedia/Audio/2008/mello08
Obesity and Chronic Disease Prevention: New York City’s innovative legal initiatives to regulate trans fat and require menu labels indicating calorie counts at chain restaurants:http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/multimedia/audio/2009/Mello_Tran