Health Justice Alliance

Our Academic Medical-Legal Partnership is training the next generation of health, law, and policy leaders to work together in pursuit of health justice as they serve some of the most vulnerable members of our D.C. community.

Why? Because in America, your zip code is more relevant than your genetic code in predicting the length and quality of your life.

Daily challenges like food insecurity, poor housing conditions, lack of insurance, family instability, problems with education or employment, and other issues can become “health-harming legal needs” that require legal advocacy partnered with medical care to overcome.

Video: The Health Justice Alliance in Action

Featured News

Researchers at MedStar Health and Georgetown Law Find Success in Integrating Lawyers Into Care Teams to Support Pregnant and Postpartum Patients

October 26, 2023

Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs), which include a lawyer as part of a patient’s care team, can help health systems address health-harming legal needs and better support pregnant and postpartum patients, according to a new research commentary published today in Obstetrics & Gynecology. The article offers insights and expert advice from Georgetown University Health Justice Alliance’s Perinatal Legal Assistance and Wellbeing (LAW) Project at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, one of the first medical-legal partnerships in the country to focus specifically on the perinatal period and a key component of the D.C. Safe Babies Safe Moms (SBSM) initiative that aims to improve maternal and infant health in the nation’s capital.