Union Decisions on Collective Bargaining Goals: A Proposal for Interest Group Participation

This Article assesses the consequences of unions\u27 virtually unrestrained power to set bargaining priorities and to reconcile antagonisms among the workers they represent. It then evaluates the function that economic interest groups within unions might serve if workers were encouraged to form interest groups and these groups were recognized as legitimate mechanisms for meeting the diverse needs of a heterogeneous workforce

The Global academic research organization network: Data sharing to cure diseases and enable learning health systems.

Introduction:Global data sharing is essential. This is the premise of the Academic Research Organization (ARO) Council, which was initiated in Japan in 2013 and has since been expanding throughout Asia and into Europe and the United States. The volume of data is growing exponentially, providing not only challenges but also the clear opportunity to understand and treat diseases in ways not previously considered. Harnessing the knowledge within the data in a successful way can provide researchers and clinicians with new ideas for therapies while avoiding repeats of failed experiments. This knowledge transfer from research into clinical care is at the heart of a learning health system. Methods:The ARO Council wishes to form a worldwide complementary system for the benefit of all patients and investigators, catalyzing more efficient and innovative medical research processes. Thus, they have organized Global ARO Network Workshops to bring interested parties together, focusing on the aspects necessary to make such a global effort successful. One such workshop was held in Austin, Texas, in November 2017. Representatives from Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Europe, and the United States reported on their efforts to encourage data sharing and to use research to inform care through learning health systems. Results:This experience report summarizes presentations and discussions at the Global ARO Network Workshop held in November 2017 in Austin, TX, with representatives from Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Europe, and the United States. Themes and recommendations to progress their efforts are explored. Standardization and harmonization are at the heart of these discussions to enable data sharing. In addition, the transformation of clinical research processes through disruptive innovation, while ensuring integrity and ethics, will be key to achieving the ARO Council goal to overcome diseases such that people not only live longer but also are healthier and happier as they age. Conclusions:The achievement of global learning health systems will require further exploration, consensus-building, funding aligned with incentives for data sharing, standardization, harmonization, and actions that support global interests for the benefit of patients

From Statute to Contract: The Law of the Employment Relationship Reconsidered

Most observers would say that the employment relationship is regulated largely by statutes. This Article argues that the statutory regulation of the employment relationship, and its correction of market failures, is disappearing under the cloak of judicial decisions upholding contracts which, in one form or another, find individuals to have waived their and the public\u27s statutory rights. In a variation on the nineteenth century\u27s transformation of the employment relationship from status to contract, we have the contemporary move from statute to contract. Part I of this Article examines how contractual waivers operate within the framework of the statutory regulation of the employment relationship: Employers remove future disputes from statutory regulation by requiring applicants for employment and incumbent employees to agree, as the price of securing or retaining a job, to have all employment-related disagreements, including alleged violations of statutory rights, decided by arbitration rather than litigation. Employers insulate current and prior employment decisions from legal challenge by requiring employees to release all claims, including those based on statute, as the price of receiving enhanced benefits. In both of these circumstances, an individual who has not challenged an employment practice or personnel decision agrees to forego statutory rights whose significance may not yet be appreciated, in order to secure something of immediate value, like a job or a benefit. I call these agreements waivers-for-private-gain. Part II addresses the operation and impact of waivers-for-private-gain, as well as the criteria for allowing these private agreements as long as they meet some type of knowing and voluntary waiver of statutory rights. Although the courts in applying the various statutes use somewhat different terms and standards in describing a knowing and voluntary waiver, the core, shared concept is procedural regularity. I argue that attention to procedural regulatory addresses whether a waiver is knowing but denies the concept of voluntariness any independent meaning. In Part III, I demonstrate that legal analysis ignores, to its detriment, the rich philosophical literature on voluntariness and its counterpoint coercion. focusing on the work of Joel Feinberg and G.A. Cohen. Part III concludes that only a fully realized conception of voluntariness provides a legitimate baseline for examining the authenticity of contractual waivers of statutory rights in the employment relationship

On Recovery in Tort for Pure Economic Loss

Pure economic loss is not considered a recoverable harm in tort law. Professor Silverstein asks, Why not

Union Decisions on Collective Bargaining Goals: A Proposal for Interest Group Participation

This Article assesses the consequences of unions\u27 virtually unrestrained power to set bargaining priorities and to reconcile antagonisms among the workers they represent. It then evaluates the function that economic interest groups within unions might serve if workers were encouraged to form interest groups and these groups were recognized as legitimate mechanisms for meeting the diverse needs of a heterogeneous workforce

Kidney Function and Disability-Free Survival in Older Women.

ObjectivesTo examine the prospective association between kidney function and three outcomes: survival to age 85 with functional independence, survival to age 85 with disability, and death before age 85.DesignProspective study.SettingWomen's Health Initiative, conducted at 40 U.S. clinical centers.ParticipantsPostmenopausal women enrolled between 1993 and 1998 with baseline biomarker assessments who had the potential to reach age 85 before September 2013 (N = 7,178).MeasurementsKidney function was measured according to estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) calculated from serum creatinine collected at baseline. Outcomes were survival to age 85 with functional independence, survival with disability, or death before age 85. Disability was defined as mobility or activity of daily living limitations measured by questionnaire.ResultseGFR was greater than 90 mL/min per 1.73 m2 in 22.7% of women, 60 to 89 mL/min per 1.73 m2 in 66.5%, 45 to 59 mL/min per 1.73 m2 in 8.7%, and less than 45 mL/min per 1.73 m2 in 2.0%. Median follow-up was 15 years. Of 4,953 survivors, 3,155 reported no physical disability at age 85. Two thousand two hundred twenty-five participants died before age 85. Women with an eGFR of 90 mL/min per 1.73 m2 or greater had 2.71 times greater odds of survival to age 85 with functional independence than of dying before 85 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.62-4.51) than those with an eGFR less than 45 mL/min per 1.73 m2 , women with an eGFR of 60 to 89 mL/min per 1.73 m2 had 3.04 times (95% CI = 1.85-5.00) greater odds, and women with an eGFR of 45 to 59 mL/min per 1.73 m2 had 2.22 times (95% CI = 1.31-3.76) greater odds. Similar, but slightly weaker odds were seen for survival to age 85 with disability. Better kidney function was not significantly associated with greater likelihood of survival to age 85 with independent function than of surviving with disability.ConclusionBetter kidney function was associated with greater likelihood of survival to age 85 with and without disability