Sharona Hoffman, J.D., Edgar A. Hahn Professor of Law and Professor of Bioethics and Co-Director, Law-Medicine Center at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Dear Colleagues:

It seems like everyone is talking about “Big Data.” According to http://datascience.case.edu/, the opportunities in this field will lead to hundreds of thousands of jobs, and in response the university has created new undergraduate majors and minors in Data Science. The university website offers numerous claims that “big data” will improve detection of multiple cancers, or enable “personalized medicine.” The July, 2014 issue of Health Affairs, the main health policy journal, focused on “Using Big Data to Transform Care.”

But data is not the same as information, and analytic methods are useless if the underlying data is garbage. Collecting data creates its own burdens on the health care system. Professor Hoffman asks, “Is big data necessarily better data?” Join us to discuss the pluses and minuses of the newest health policy craze.

All best regards,
Joe White
Luxenberg Family Professor of Public Policy and Director, Center for Policy Studies

About Our Guests

Sharona Hoffman joined the Case Western Reserve University law school faculty in 1999 and has taught civil procedure, employment discrimination, various health law courses and seminars, and a seminar entitled “Religion, Ethics, and the Law.” Prior to obtaining her LL.M. in health law, Hoffman was a Senior Trial Attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Houston, an associate at O’Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, where she spent much of her time working on the Exxon Valdez oil spill case, and a judicial clerk for U.S. District Judge Douglas W. Hillman (Western District of Michigan). Hoffman spent the spring semester of 2007 as a Guest Researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Law Program. She has published articles on employment discrimination, health insurance, disability law, biomedical research, the concept of race and its use in law and medicine, emergency preparedness, and health information technology. She is a frequent speaker on health law and civil rights issues and has been widely quoted in the media, including the L.A. Times, USA Today, Business Week, and the New York Times.

Where We Meet

The Friday Public Affairs Lunch convenes each Friday when classes are in session, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. We usually meet in the Dampeer Room of Kelvin Smith Library. The Dampeer Room is on the second floor of the library. If you get off the elevators, turn right, pass the first bank of tables, and turn right again. Occasionally we need to use a different room; that will always be announced in the weekly e-mails.

Parking Possibilities

The most convenient parking is the lot underneath Severance Hall. We regret that it is not free. From that lot there is an elevator up to street level (labeled as for the Thwing Center); it is less than 50 yards from that exit to the library entrance. You can get from the Severance garage to the library without going outside. Near the entry gates – just to the right if you were driving out – there is a door into a corridor. Walk down the corridor and there will be another door. Beyond that door you’ll find the entrance to an elevator which goes up to an entrance right inside the doors to Kelvin Smith Library.

Friday Lunch Upcoming Topics and Speakers:

September 26: The Future of CLE Air Service. With Todd F. Payne, Chief of Marketing and Air Service Development, Cleveland Airport System. ***Alternative Venue: LL06 B & C at Kelvin Smith Library***

October 3: Encouraging Savings by the Poor in Developing Countries. With Silvia Prina, Associate Professor of Economics. ***Alternative Venue: Mather House Room 100***

October 10: The Effects of High-Stakes Testing on Students and Schools. With Dale Whittington Ph.D., Director of Research and Evaluation, Shaker Heights City School District.

October 17: “Obamacare” and The Free Clinic. With Danny Williams J.D., MNO, Executive Director, The Free Clinic of Greater Cleveland. ***Alternative Venue: Mather House Room 100***

October 24: An Update on the Search for an AIDS Vaccine. With Michael M. Lederman, Scott R. Inkley Professor of Medicine and Co-Director, CWRU/UHC Center for AIDS Research.

October 31: The Midterm Election. With Karen Beckwith, Flora Stone Mather Professor of Political Science, Justin Buchler, Associate Professor of Political Science; and Andrew Lucker, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Political Science. ***Alternative Venue: LL06 B & C at Kelvin Smith Library***

November 7: ROTC Returns to Campus. With Lt. Colonel Donald Hazelwood, Northeast Ohio ROTC Commander and Professor of Military Science, John Carroll University. ***Alternative Venue: Mather House Room 100***

November 14: Perspectives on Human Subjects Research Requirements. With Suzanne Rivera Ph.D., M.S.W., Associate Vice President for Research and Assistant Professor of Bioethics. ***Alternative Venue: LL06 B & C at Kelvin Smith Library***

November 21: Local Government in an Age of Austerity. With David B. Miller, Associate Professor in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences and Council President, City of South Euclid.

November 28: Thanksgiving Break

December 5: Godless Democrats and Pious Republicans: Party Activists and the Mythical God Gulf. With Ryan Claassen, Associate Professor of Political Science, Kent State University.