Michael Cohen
Speaker on Alternative Medicine and Legal Issues
- Fee Range: Notes on Fees
- Call for Fee
- Program Type
- - Keynote Speaking
- Traveling From:
- California
Topics
- Healthcare Experts
Bio
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Michael H. Cohen is a lawyer and Harvard University professor who specializes in the integration of complementary and alternative medicine into mainstream health care. He writes the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog, which informs clinicians, hospitals and other health care organizations, medical schools and medical spas, lawyers, regulators, corporations, and the public about the legal and business issues involved in bridging conventional care with complementary and alternative medicine. Michael has published numerous articles and ground-breaking books in the field, and has represented clients from Beijing to California and Dubai.
Speaking Experience
Michael has spoken to physicians at top medical schools (such as Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins), hospitals and health care systems (such as Kaiser, MGH and Banner Health), professional societies (from the California Society of Addiction Medicine, to the Royal College of Physicians in London); policymakers and government-related organizations, from the New York Task Force on Life and the Law, to the Institute of Medicine and the United States Air Force; legal institutions, from bar associations to the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School; specialty audiences, from the International Congress on Tibetan Medicine, to U. Penn.'s Center for Bioethics, to the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School; and business groups (including the HyVee Corporate Officers' Retreat, TAP Pharmaceuticals, BodyWise International, and the Greater Detroit Area Health Council).
Education
Michael graduated from Columbia University (BA), the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley (JD), Haas School of Management at the University of California, Berkeley (MBA), and Iowa Writers Workshop (MFA).
Legal Experience
After law school, Michael served a law clerk to Chief Judge Thomas P. Griesa in the Southern District of New York. He joined the corporate department of Davis Polk & Wardwell (a Wall Street law firm), working in the banking, securities, and mergers & acquisitions departments, and representing issuers and underwriters in securities offerings; lenders as well as borrowers on financings; and a variety of companies in joint ventures and acquisitions.
As a law professor for six years, he taught health care law, civil procedure, conflicts of laws, constitutional law, criminal law, and insurance law, and published a series of influential articles and books on complementary medicine law and policy.
Moving to the West Coast, Michael joined Burkhalter, Michaels, Kessler & George and opened his own law practice, handling start-ups, bankruptcy, securities fraud, mediation, medical malpractice, intellectual property, insurance regulation, employment issues, and general corporate law.
Michael's Harvard Experience
As Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2000-05, Michael served as Director of Legal Programs at the Harvard Medical School Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies and Harvard Medical School Osher Institute. Michael's responsibilities included designing policies for a reproducible model of integrative health care within the Harvard hospital system; he also spearheaded negotiation among international coinvestigators of agreement around intellectual property issues for systematic evaluation of East Asian herbal products. From 2005-08, Michael holds a joint appointment as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management at Harvard School of Public Health, where he directs a course on Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Health Law & Policy. From July 1, 2008, he serves as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. While at Harvard, Michael was awarded a Fortieth Anniversary Senior Fellowship at the Center for the Study of World Religions within Harvard Divinity School. His work received funding from federal and philanthropic organizations, including the National Library of Medicine; the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) at the National Institutes of Health; the Greenwall Foundation; and the Rudolph Steiner Foundation.
Additional Activities
Michael has contributed to important public policy initiatives, including serving as Consultant to Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, Committee on Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the American Public. He serves as President of the Institute for Integrative and Energy Medicine, a nonprofit created to explore frontiers of health law and policy. Michael gives seminars, media interviews, and policy guidance all over the world about contemporary legal issues in health care.
Michael is a member of the Bar of California, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C., and a Solicitor (non-practicing) of the Supreme Court of England and Wales.
Interest in Complementary, Alternative & Integrative Medicine
While working on Wall Street, Michael studied Ericksonian hypnotherapy (the subject of his novel), Gurdjieff Work, and other tools for investigating consciousness. He also received ordination following graduation from the New Seminary in New York, and graduated from the Barbara Brennan School of Healing in Florida. Michael trained as a hospice volunteer with Dannion Brinkley's “Compassion in Action,” completed his teacher training at Full Spectrum Yoga, and became a Registered Yoga Teacher. He recently returned from a month's study of ashtanga yoga with K. Pattabhi Jois in India and is active in Yinstyle, a company with a conscience. Because his legal and policy background is complemented by experience with CAM modalities, Michael offers new perspectives on medicine and the way legal boundaries shape healing.
A physician and medical school faculty colleague wrote: “Underlying his intellect is his creativity and ability to articulate the philosophy behind complementary medicine and the law beyond anything described. Michael is a visionary.” Michael's work has received many outstanding reviews from peers who are leaders in the healthcare and legal professions.
Speaker Programs
When Patients Insist on Complementary & Alternative Medicine: 4 Ways to Help Legally Protect Your Clinical Practice or Hospital
Because more than half of Americans use complementary and alternative medical (CAM) modalities, such as acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, herbal medicine, naturopathy, homeopathy, Reiki, and energy healing), physicians, hospitals, and health care institutions often find themselves besieged by requests for information about, or delivery of, modalities outside conventional medical care. Such patient demand can pose legal and ethical conflicts for physicians sworn to do no harm, while protecting the health of their patients. Hospitals also face demands to integrate CAM therapies such as acupuncture into their care, or to stock Gingko, St. John’s wort, and other dietary supplements in their pharmacies.
Developing a Legally Defensible Business Model in New Wellness Paradigm: 5 Liability Management Tips for Medical Spas, Integrative Care Clinics, and Holistic Health Businesses
With the global popularity of so-called “traditional medicine” as well as medical tourism, health care consumers are turning toward holistic models of healing, focusing nutritional, exercise and lifestyle choices, and aiming their consumer dollars at prevention and “wellness care.” So-called “retail medicine” is also expanding, with the most basic medical services (such as blood pressure checks) being offered in locations from Walmart to local malls. Business entities seeking to capitalize on these trends, and meet the growing consumer demand for wellness care, must manage their liability risk in this new terrain, whether they are styled as a medical spa, complementary care clinic, integrative medicine center, or holistic health business. This talk provides 5 liability management tips to help organizations stay clear of unnecessary legal entanglement.
7 Steps to Ensure Your Right to Alternative Medicine as a Patient: Negotiating with Doctors, Hospitals and Insurers
Consumer insistence on CAM choices often clashes with doctors’ preferences and physician reliance on evidence-based medicine. Understanding your rights as a patient is critical to wise decision-making and navigating your relationship with doctors, hospitals, and other caregivers.
Healing at the Borderland of Medicine and Religion: Legal and Social Implications
As consumers’ health care choices shift away from conventional medicine and more toward personal explorations, ranging from colonics to Reiki and Therapeutic Touch, guided imagery to bodywork, acupuncture to nutraceuticals and medical foods, the borderland between medicine and religion becomes increasingly fuzzy. All disciplines must understand the increasingly intricate relationship between medicine, ethics, law, and spirituality in order to assimilate the new paradigm of consumer choice at the border of health care and personal freedom. Learn how therapies in what Michael calls the “Borderland” are changing.
Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Legal Boundaries, Ethical Dilemmas, and Regulatory Perspectives - 3 Ways to Re-think the Current Balance Between Patient Choice, and Patient Protection
In 2005, the Institute of Medicine convened a study committee to explore scientific, policy and practice questions that arise from the significant and increasing use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) therapies by the American public. The study found that greater openness was required on the part of scientific and medical communities, and that legislation and public policy should encourage a new and deeper balance between the goals of empowering health care consumers while protecting the public against dangerous practices. This talk addresses the profound impact of new models of medical pluralism on social change, including larger world trends such as self-determination and democratic values, sustainable development, and economic well-being.
Health Trends 2020: 5 Tools to Anticipate and Prepare for the Coming Merger of Technological Change and Spiritual Transformation
Through yoga, massage and other forms of bodywork, therapeutic touch, Reiki, hands-on and spiritual healing, guided imagery, meditation, and prayer, millions are turning to spirituality as an integral part of self-care. Health and wellness is no longer strictly about medicine. This has enormous implications for the business of health care, as well as for broader social trends toward unity, cohesion, environmental awareness, and even conflict resolution and global peace. Whether considered a “New Age” movement or simply greater reliance on self-empowerment and healing, the upsurge in emphasis on spirituality and consciousness in the new millennium is changing perceptions of health care, wellness, and the link between physical care and care for the soul. Addressing the delicate interface between legal authority, health care, and consciousness, Michael H. Cohen links the thread of technology, business, and spirituality with advice for the new entrepreneur and health care consumer.
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