Table of Contents
Introduction
Health Law is a broad category of law that touches on wide variety of legal and non-legal disciplines. This guide will point out several of the major information sources that should prove useful in researching this area of law. An emphasis is placed on materials available in the Law Library and electronically.
You may need to do additional subject matter research that is primarily medicine or drug-related. You should feel free to visit the Medical Center Library (MCL) and seek the assistance of medical librarians. MCL’s coverage is much deeper in those subjects related to your research but not primarily collected by the Law Library.
Likewise, if you need to do general health-related research, you may find the W.T. Young Library valuable. The Young Library collection contains numerous resources on general public-health related issues and topics.
Handouts
Health Law Seminar Research Guide (
Health_Law.doc)
Selected Bibliography of Health Law Resources (health care bib.doc)
Selected Health Law Subject Headings (Health_Law_Subjects.doc)
InfoKat Handout (infokat catalog handout 2007.doc)
Electronic Resources
Legal Databases
To access the full list of legal electronic resources available at the UK Law Library, start at UK Law Library Webpage (http://www.uky.edu/Law/Library/index.htm) → Electronic Resources → UK Law Databases
- HeinOnline
- Contains PDF scans of over 900 law journals as well as the Federal Register, CFR, Statutes at Large and a collection of “legal classics.”
- Index to Legal Periodicals
- Index to approximately 1300 journals with coverage back over 100 years
- Selected full text; connected to the SFX Find @ UK program
- LegalTrac
- provides indexing for approximately 875 titles including major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals and international legal journals.
- Try the "subject guide search," which should be the default search when starting LegalTrac. Search for "medical law" and then click "related subjects" for brainstorming help.
- Lexis
- See Lexis’ Health Care Research Guide (http://www.lexisnexis.com/infopro/training/reference/Research/HealthCareResearchGuide.pdf )for more specific research assistance
- Health Care Topical Databases
- Search → Look for a Source → Legal → Area of Law-by topic → Health Care
- Contains all type of materials, e.g. cases, law reviews, administrative materials, etc.
- Public Health & Welfare Databases
- Search → Look for a Source → Legal → Area of Law-by topic → Public Health and Welfare
- Contains all type of materials, e.g. cases, law reviews, administrative materials, etc.
- Healthcare Law Search Advisor
- Search Advisor tab → Healthcare Law
- Lexis Congressional (listed under “Lexis-Nexis Search Products”)
- Electronic version of the print CIS Index
- Citations and summaries of congressional documents, including hearings, prints, reports, and documents; searchable by bill or report number or by subject
- Congressional Search: includes CIS Index (1970 forward) and Historical Texts (also known as the U.S. Serial Set) (back to 1789; in progress)
Non-Legal Databases
To access relevant non-legal resources available from the University of Kentucky Libraries, start at the libraries’ webpage (http://www.uky.edu/Libraries/index.php) → databases (button) → search for “health” or go to "Resources Organized by Subject" and click "Health Care." Alternatively, you can go directly to the Medical Center Library webpage (http://www.mc.uky.edu/MedLibrary/) → databases
- CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature)
- Indexes English-language and selected foreign-language nursing journals, publications from the American Nurses' Association and the National League for Nursing, and journals from 17 allied health disciplines. Also covers biomedicine, management, behavioral sciences, health sciences librarianship, education, consumer health, chiropractic, and health services administration literature.
- Medline and Medline Plus
- Citations and Abstracts
- Topics: microbiology, delivery of health care (medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system and preclinical sciences), nutrition, pharmacology and environmental health
- Coverage: over 4,800 journals from the U.S. and 70 other countries
- MedlinePlus: a free, consumer information site
- PubMed
- Free search access to Medline
- Also contains an index to medical periodicals
- Joint project of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
- Current Contents
- 7,000 of the world’s leading scholarly research journals and books in various disciplines including Clinical Medicine, Life Sciences, Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences, & Social and Behavioral Sciences
- Complete bibliographic information of articles, chapters, reviews, meeting abstracts, editorials, etc., and tables of contents are provided for each journal cited.
- National Library of Medicine Gateway
- A gateway that allows you to search multiple resources for keywords
- Searches both consumer-oriented resources and specialty resources
o Psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines
o Citations and summaries – not full text
o Journal articles, book chapters, books, and technical reports; citations to dissertations
o Contains three indexes: Science Citation Index (SCI); Social Science Citation Index (SSCI); Arts & Humanities Citation Index
o The science and social science indexes can be accessed separately and independently if you want to narrow your search
Interdisciplinary, Cross-disciplinary, & General Databases
o Title by title database of the journals available full text in electronic form
o Access to specific, known journal titles you are seeking
o Accessible from anywhere on the Internet but have to proxy in to actually see the full text
o An aggregator that licenses multiple databases (including some that UK allows direct access to)
o Notable databases: Academic Search Premiere, Health Source: Consumer Edition, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection.
- netLibrary
- Full text electronic books that can be “checked out” for 2 hours at a time
- InfoKat, the library catalog, includes links to netLibrary titles
Current Awareness
There are several ways to stay abreast of current developments in the area of Health Law. Researchers don’t have to use every avenue at their disposal, but should choose a few they are comfortable with and then regularly monitor, check or read those resources.
Tools for Finding Current Developments
Newspapers: Monitor the health news in a national or major newspaper or magazine. Many have Health Sections that are freely available on line. Example: The New York Times health section http://www.nytimes.com/pages/health/index.html
Journals: Regularly read select journals or magazines dealing with health care law. Example: The Health Lawyer published by the ABA Health Law Section – Law Library ; Call number: KF3821.A15 H39
Scan reporters: Regularly scan case summaries in a health law reporter. If you’re interested in a specific jurisdiction, scan advance sheets for that jurisdiction, looking cases classified under the relevant subject headings. Example: BNA Health Law Reporter – Law Library ; Call number KF3825.5.A15 B63
Online Legislative Resources: Use THOMAS (http://thomas.loc.gov) to track federal legislative activity.
Findlaw: Use free newsletters to stay abreast of developments as they occur, including a bi-monthly newsletter you can subscribe to here: http://newsletters.findlaw.com/nl Example: sample of the health law newsletter http://newsletters.findlaw.com/samples/healthlaw.html
Blogs: Monitor blogs by health law professionals to keep an eye on what’s in the news. To find legal blogs, search an index like the one at http://www.blawgs.org . You’ll have to experiment and you may not want to sift through extraneous material, but if you find a blog to your tastes, this can be an easy way to stay up to date. Example: Health Law Prof Blog http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/healthlawprof_blog/
Government Information: Frequent the website of a government agency or a congressional committee or subcommittee overseeing or legislating on an issue that interests you; if you’re not sure how to find government internet information, start with searching Google Uncle Sam at http://www.google.com/unclesam . Example: United States Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights HIPPA page at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/hipaa/
Westlaw and Lexis: Create automated searches in Westlaw and Lexis databases (topical news and information or case, statute or regulation databases) and have the latest developments delivered to you e-mail account.
Monitor Advocacy Websites: While you’ll need to keep in mind any bias, these sites are usually keeping up with the latest developments around issues important to them. Example: March of Dimes News Desk http://www.marchofdimes.com/aboutus/791.asp
Monitor a Reputable Medical Information Site: Many of these sites report recent health-related news. Some even report action for specific agencies, for example the FDA. Unsure if it’s reputable? Check out the Librarian’s Internet Index http://lii.org/ for listings. Example: Discovery Health http://health.discovery.com/
Print Materials
Health Law print materials are primarily concentrated in the KF 3821 – KF 3829 ranges on the second floor of the Law Library. The following are basic introductory texts. Consult the separate Selected Bibliography on Health Law Materials for a more extensive listing of references to specific print resources located in the UK Law Library.
Reference Sources
- Attorneys’ Dictionary of Medicine and Word Finder. Law Library ; Call number R121 .S329 (also available in LexisNexis)
- Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders : DSM-IV-TR. Law Library Reserves ; Call number RC455.2.C4 D536 2000
- The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Medical Center Library ; Call number WB 13 G152 1999
- The Merck manual of diagnosis and therapy. Law Library Reserves ; Call number RC55 M4
- Physicians’ Desk Reference: PDR. Law Library Reserves ; Call number RS250 .P55
Treatises, Hornbooks and Nutshells
- Health Care Law and Ethics in a Nutshell by Mark A. Hall, Ira Mark Ellman and Daniel Strouse. Law Library Reserves ; Call number KF3821.Z9 H35 1999
- Health Care Law: A Practical Guide by Michael G. Macdonald, Kathryn C. Meyer, Beth Essig. Medical Center Library ; Call number W 32.5 AA1 M16h 1985
- Health Care Law Desk Reference by Alison Barnes, et al. Law Library ; Call number KF3821 .H4337 2001
- Health Law (Hornbook) by Barry R. Furrow, et al. Law Library Reserves ; Call number KF3821 .H4342 2000
- Health Law (Treatise) by Barry R. Furrow, et al. Law Library Reserves ; Call number KF3821 .H434 2000
- Health Policymaking in the United States by Beaufort B. Longest, Jr. ; Medical Center Library ; Call number WA 525 L852h 1994 (also available as an e-book)
- Law and Bioethics: an Introduction Edited by Jerry Menikoff. Law Library ; Call number KF3821 .M46 2001
Finding Other Books
The collections of all UK Libraries are searchable in a unified catalog, named InfoKat. InfoKat is available on the web at http://infokat.uky.edu . You do not need to be physically on campus to access and search the library catalog. Additionally, through InfoKat, you can have books at other UK libraries delivered to the Law Library.
Although the collection at the UK Libraries is impressive, it is by no means complete. You may want to check WorldCat, which searches thousands of library catalogs. WorldCat is available from the UK Libraries Database webpage and a limited version is available from google scholar (http://scholar.google.com) Alternatively, you can also search the Kentucky Virtual Library (http://www.kyvl.org/) , which searches public and academic libraries in Kentucky.
Paper Topic Selection
No matter what area of law your paper covers, there are three basic categories of legal topics:
(1) the law is unclear because of conflict between jurisdictions, or
(2) new situations that have yet to be tested in court, or
(3) changes in society/technology that render a current rule no longer equitable
The topic you select should be something that has not been extensively covered by other authors. You should also take care that you have picked a topic that is broad enough that you’ll be able to find enough to write about but narrow enough to be tackled in a single semester. Remember that you’ll be living with the topic for the next few months. The best papers are going to come out of topics that interest you. Finally, you may find a topic when you least expect it – even while watching TV or reading a magazine!
General Print Resources
Elizabeth Fajans & Mary K. Falk. Scholarly Writing for Law Students: Seminar Papers, Law Review Notes, and Law Review Competition Papers – KF 250. F35
Heather Meeker, Stalking the Golden Topic: A Guide to Locating and Selecting Topics for Legal Research Papers. 1996 Utah L. Rev. 917 (1996)
Eugene Vokokh. Academic Legal Writing – KF 250. V6 2003 On Reserve
The above are general resources on a how to pick a topic, structure a seminar paper, etc. Generally, materials dealing with Health Law may be found on the second floor of the library in the call number range KF 3800s.
Finding Split Circuits
Databases
BNA United States Law Week and Supreme Court Today (UK Law Only)
- United States Law Week - options
-
Supreme Court Today
- Browse issues, which divide cases up by general topic headings
- Search issues
Blogs
JURIST - Paper Chase
Blawg Republic (Be sure to also check the directory to find subject-specific blogs)
Split Circuits
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