Law Journal Symposium to explore post-pandemic privacy in law, public health, technology, cybersecurity

LAWRENCE — Scholars and experts in law will focus on post-pandemic privacy implications concerning the disparities in the health system, technology and cybersecurity for a University of Kansas School of Law event.

The 2022 Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy Symposium “Post-Pandemic Privacy: Health, Data, and Dignity” will run from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11. The online event is free and open to the public, but registration is required. Register and learn more about the program online.

The event is co-hosted by the journal and PrivacyPraxis. Najarian Peters, associate professor of law, founded the PrivacyPraxis conference and hosted its inaugural conference in February 2021.

“We are very excited for this year’s symposium on post-pandemic privacy implications concerning health care, technology and cybersecurity,” said Melinda Foshat, symposium editor and third-year law student. “We wanted to discuss these topics with several privacy, health care and technology law experts who could formulate solutions to important privacy and security concerns raised during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The virtual symposium will start with a keynote presentation by Kimberly Mutcherson, co-dean and professor of law at Rutgers Law School in Camden. Mutcherson's scholarship focuses on reproductive justice, bioethics, and family and health law.

Following the keynote, speakers will discuss post-pandemic privacy implications concerning health care, technology and cybersecurity during two panels and a roundtable discussion. The first panel's focus is on the post-pandemic reshaping of the health care system and issues regarding telehealth, technology and social disparities. The second panel's focus is on post-pandemic technology concerns regarding security, surveillance, biometric and location data, and other technology-related privacy implications. During a roundtable discussion, panelists will discuss the disproportionate impact of the pandemic in racially marginalized communities.

Keynote Presentation:

• Kimberly Mutcherson, “Reproductive Justice in a Post-Pandemic World: Lessons We Should Learn (But Probably Won’t)”

Co-dean and professor of law, Rutgers Law School in Camden

Panel One Presentations:

• Renée Landers, “Protecting Privacy While Providing Health Care, Promoting Public Health, and Enhancing Economic Security”

Professor of law and faculty director of the Health and Biomedical Law Concentration and the Masters of Law: Life Sciences program, Suffolk University Law School

• Soumitra Bhuyan, TBA

Assistant professor, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers University

• Jody Madeira, “Post-Pandemic Privacy and the Ethics of Telehealth Platforms and Third Party Apps”

Professor of law and Louis F. Niezer Faculty Fellow, co-director, Center for Law, Society & Culture, Maurer School of Law, Indiana University, Bloomington

• Leah Fowler, “COVID-19 & The Myth of Health Data Privacy”

Research assistant professor and research director in the Health Law & Policy Institute, University of Houston Law Center

• Barry Furrow, “Mainstreaming Telehealth? Constraints on Broad Use”

Director of the Health Law Program and professor of law, Thomas R. Kline School of Law, Drexel University

Panel Two Presentations:

• Jacob Elberg, “Balancing Telehealth Availability with Fraud and Abuse Concerns”

Associate professor of law and associate director of the Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law, Seton Hall Law School

• Sam Halabi, “New Global Health Surveillance Technologies and the Protection of Community and Patient Privacy”

Senior scholar and visiting professor, O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University Law Center

• David Opderbeck, “Contact Tracing, Vaccination Status, and Privacy: The EU Example”

Professor of law and co-director of the Gibbons Institute of Law, Science & Technology, Seton Hall Law School

Roundtable Discussion:

• Teri Dobbins Baxter

Williford Gragg Distinguished Professor, the University of Tennessee College of Law

• Thomas Williams

Clinical professor of law and director of the JD/MA in Bioethics and Science Policy, Duke Law School

Scholarship associated with the program will be published in a future issue of the Kansas Journal of Law & Public Policy.