Jennifer Moore

Where are they now? Jennifer Moore is at Stanford

Jennifer Moore, PhD, who graduated as the top LLB student from Victoria University of Wellington’s Faculty of Law in 2010, is at Stanford Law School. She is the 2015-16 Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy and Practice.

This prestigious Fellowship, awarded by the United States Commonwealth Fund, enables the recipient to undertake research in the United States for 12 months.

Dr Moore is working with Professor Michelle Mello (Stanford and Harvard) on a health law project researching alternatives to medical malpractice. Professor Mello is recognised as one of the leading empirical health law scholars in the world.

Dr Moore’s multi-disciplinary research will aim to inform the design of communication-and-resolution programmes (CRPs) in the US. Such CRPs seek to identify and disclose medical injuries, improve quality of care, and offer apology and compensation.

“The purpose of the research is to collect data from New Zealand and the United States to explore a longstanding problem in health law and policy: how to improve the resolution of medical injuries, or ‘treatment injuries’, as they are called in New Zealand,” Dr Moore says. “Patients’ needs following medical injuries are complex, and little is known about how well healthcare institutions meet them.

“The study also examines the impact of the 2005 law reform (which changed ‘medical misadventure’ to ‘treatment injury’) by analysing case law, and also undertaking interviews with patients, DHBs, lawyers and ACC Treatment Injury Centre staff. The findings will be useful for ACC policymakers, providers and injured patients in New Zealand. The results of the study will contribute to health policy and law reform both in New Zealand and in the United States.

“I’ve been at Stanford Law School for five months, but my excitement about being here has not waned! It is arguably the top US law school in my field – empirical health law – particularly since Professors Studdert and Mello (Harvard) accepted appointments here. Professor Mello’s excellent working relationship with Harvard facilitated a smooth entry point into the data collection that I’m doing at two hospitals in Massachusetts,” Dr Moore says.

Dr Moore is a Senior Lecturer in Preventive Medicine and an Affiliate Senior Research Fellow in Law at the University of Otago.

She was previously the acting director of the Legal Issues Centre at the University of Otago, where she led a Law Foundation-funded investigation on the health policy impact of New Zealand coroners’ recommendations. She also conducted research on complaints against lawyers with health impairments. Previously she was legal advisor to the New Zealand Law Commissioners. She holds a practising certificate as a barrister and solicitor and also has a Ph.D. in public health from the University of Melbourne.

Find out more about Dr Moore’s Harkness Fellowship.