February 9, 1996
Contact: Jean Moore, (615) 322-2706
BLUMSTEIN NAMED TO DIRECT HEALTH POLICY CENTER AT VANDERBILT
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- James F. Blumstein, a professor of law at Vanderbilt
School of Law, has been named director of the Health Policy Center at the
Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies.
Blumstein's involvement with VIPPS predates the organization itself. He
was director of the Institute's predecessor, the Urban and Regional Development
Center, in the 1970s, and he recommended the creation of VIPPS. He returned
from Duke University to chair the committee that recruited the first VIPPS
director, and he has remained active through the years as a senior fellow.
"We are most fortunate to have Jim putting his effort into re- energizing
our health policy center," said VIPPS Director Cliff Russell, who noted
the position of director has been filled by various scholars on an interim
basis in recent years.
"His ongoing research on the health care industry and other related
interests have been a cornerstone of the center's activities for some years
now, and I am grateful for Jim's willingness to assume the additional responsibilities
that come with this new position."
Blumstein said the center's research priorities will mirror his own, at
least for the time being, including a major effort funded by the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation.
"The original focus of this project was hospital management, and several
papers have been published on that aspect," said Blumstein.
"Now I'm examining the legal environment in which the health care industry
is changing: whether the legal structure is impeding or facilitating the
evolution of the health care marketplace, what are the problems, what are
the possibilities."
Another area of emphasis is the annual seminar, to be held next month, on
medical malpractice for state supreme court justices.
"We'll have justices from some 23 different states with faculty coming
from Duke, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Chicago, as well as several
from Vanderbilt," he said.
And later this spring Blumstein will be reunited with a former Vanderbilt
colleague, health economist Frank Sloan, for a major study of TennCare.
In addition to his research commitments, Blumstein plans to use his first
semester as director to inventory faculty resources and interests.
"I want to use the center at VIPPS as a vehicle for assessing the strengths
across schools and departments in the health policy area and to help provide
an intellectual home for people who want to do health policy work, to coordinate
research across disciplines," he explained.
Blumstein also hopes to help VIPPS capitalize on Nashville's role as a leader
in the medical field.
"Nashville is really a health care town, and Vanderbilt should take
advantage of that," he said.
"There is an important niche in Nashville for bringing the best thinking
in health policy issues to the Vanderbilt community and to the health care
community -- both the purchasers and the providers -- in Nashville. This
means perhaps organizing seminars, bringing in speakers and possibly working
in conjunction with other local organizations concerned with the business
side of health.
"I'm looking forward to this," he said of his new appointment.
"I'm hoping that we can add to the intellectual and policy discussion
of the health care industry and have VIPPS become a center for that."
-VU-
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