National conference to focus on health law
Tuesday October 30, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
Tracey Bailey, co-chair of the upcoming Visions National Health Law Conference, says the event is a good opportunity to disseminate the most recent health law research and to network with colleagues.

According to the conference’s website, the event is set against a legal backdrop and features presentations focusing on the future of healthcare. Scheduled for Nov. 8 to 10 in Banff, Alberta, the conference is being hosted by the University of Alberta’s Health Law Institute.

Bailey, executive director of the Health Law Institute, says the idea is to schedule presentations and stimulate discussion on issues that are being talked about in professional, political or media circles.

“For example, the Picard Lecture panel that we’re hosting this year is on healthcare reform and of course you see stories on that every week in the media,” Bailey says. “It’s also the subject of a lot of research and work at the moment so we felt that was important.”

Some of the other presentation topics at the conference include, emerging research challenges, liability issues, technologies, paradigms, gaps and health issues.

Bailey says the conference is unique compared to others because the focus is squarely set on health law, as opposed to other health conferences that may only have a session or two devoted to legal issues. She says attendees in the past have made similar remarks on post-conference evaluation forms.

“One of the main goals would be to bring together the leading academics in this area in Canada to present on the research they have been conducting in the recent past (and) to get feedback from their colleagues on that work,” Bailey says. “For people in attendance, it’s a great opportunity to actually hear from these people in person in respect to a lot of cutting-edge issues in the area of health law policy.”

Bailey says anytime you can get this many like-minded academics in the same place, collaboration is bound to happen and hopes to see some of that occur this year as it has in the past.

“It’s a nice way to disseminate results of research but also an excellent networking opportunity and a chance for people to discuss future work that they might do together,” Bailey says.

Aside from the scheduled presentations, there is also a book launch set for Nov. 9. The book’s trio of co-editors — Jocelyn Downie, Tim Caulfield and Colleen Flood — will be on hand for the third edition launch of their new tome called Canadian Health Law and Policy.

A number of poster presentations that have been submitted by law students and their professors will also be on display. The students will be attendance Friday evening to talk about their poster presentations and the supporting research.

There are still spaces available for the conference. For more information, visit this website.