Free expression: Cracking down at Harvard Med
The willingness of Harvard Medical School students to agitate - either against the influence of pharmaceutical company spending on medical education or in favor of making university-developed medicines affordable for developing countries - has been one of the school’s strengths. Often, the students advance their goals by dealing directly with the media. So it required an acute case of brain lock for the school to tell students that their contacts with media “should be coordinated with the Office of the Dean of Students and the Office of Public Affairs.’’ When an outcry erupted, the school insisted - preposterously - that the policy was in part a reaction to the popularity of Twitter and had just been misconstrued. The school now says it is pulling the policy from its handbook and plans to rewrite it with student input. What’s to rewrite? Just tell the students not to divulge confidential patient information, which they know anyway, and let them go back to the barricades. 