Blinding as a Solution to Bias

"Since the time of Ben Franklin, scientists have recognized the power of blinding to help us see the world more objectively. This collection of essays explores the complicated psychology of blinding, while making a compelling case that we have yet to fully embrace the power of invisibility." --Peter A. Ubel, University Professor, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University

"Robertson and Kesselheim's book provides an authoritative look at the practice of blinding and how it can be used to improve our health care and legal systems. It is a wonderful resource for medical students, policymakers, and anyone else interested in studying conflicts of interest and helping address bias in clinical practice and biomedical research." --Jerry Avorn, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

"This extraordinary collection of scholars takes on in exhaustive detail one of the foundational questions of public policy - under what circumstances are decisions improved by limiting decisionmakers' access to information. From orchestra auditions and secret ballots to blinded trials and the parole evidence rule, the examples discussed in in this volume's broad-ranging contributions illuminate when veils of ignorance should be embraced." --Ian Ayres, Professor, Yale Law School

Christopher Robertson is an expert at the intersection of science, health, decision sciences, and law. He serves as associate dean for research and innovation and professor at the James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona, and is affiliated faculty with the Petrie Flom Center for Health Care Policy, Bioethics and Biotechnology at Harvard. Robertson also leads the University of Arizona Regulatory Science program, which identifies and resolves legal issues that impede scientific progress. Robertson has received research support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard, and the Greenwall Foundation. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and earned a doctorate in Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis. He has taught at Harvard Law, NYU Law, and Washington University in St. Louis. Robertson has other forthcoming books with Johns Hopkins University Press and Harvard University Press.Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a faculty member in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital. His research focuses on the effects of intellectual property laws and regulatory policies on pharmaceutical development, the drug approval process, and the costs, availability, and use of prescription drugs both domestically and in resource-poor settings. Dr. Kesselheim leads the Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law (PORTAL), an interdisciplinary research core focusing on intersections among prescription drugs and medical devices, patient health outcomes, and regulatory practices and the law. In 2013, Dr. Kesselheim was named a Greenwall Faculty Scholar in Bioethics by the Greenwall Foundation, which supports innovative empirical research in bioethics. Dr. Kesselheim's work is also currently funded by the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science, the FDA, and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Dr. Kesselheim serves as a faculty member at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, has been a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where he teaches Food and Drug Administration Law. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, working as a primary care physician at the Phyllis Jen Center for Primary Care at BWH.