Obesity Epidemic Topic of Pitt's Annual Nordenberg Lecture in Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry Nov. 8

PITTSBURGH—Michelle M. Mello, C. Boyden Gray Associate Professor of Health Policy and Law in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University School of Public Health, will deliver the annual Mark A. Nordenberg Lecture in Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry at noon Nov. 8 in the University of Pittsburgh Barco Law Building's Teplitz Memorial Courtroom, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

Mello's free public lecture is titled "Legal and Policy Approaches to the Obesity Epidemic."

Mello is author of more than 70 articles and book chapters on the medical malpractice system, medical errors and patient safety, research ethics, mass tort litigation, the obesity epidemic, pharmaceuticals, clinical ethics, and other topics. One of her projects involves an investigation of the impact of the medical malpractice crisis on physician supply in Pennsylvania. She also has conducted studies on factors contributing to medical errors in the hospital, legal relationships between academic investigators and industry sponsors of clinical trials, and a feasibility study of an administrative "no fault" system of compensating medical injuries.

As a Greenwall Faculty Scholar, Mello is studying ethical issues confronting the pharmaceutical industry. She received the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award from AcademyHealth in 2006 for outstanding promise in the field of health services research.

Mello earned the Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and applied ethics at Stanford University in 1993, the Master of Philosophy degree in comparative social research at Oxford University in 1995, the PhD degree in health policy and administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1999, and the JD degree at Yale University Law School in 2000.

The lecture, named after Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, former dean of the law school, is approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Board for one hour of substantive CLE credit. For more information, call (412) 648-1305 or email steffy@pitt.edu or visit http://www.law.pitt.edu/academics/programs/cle-calendar.php.

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