Medical-legal partnerships: Transforming health care

Doctors, especially those who care for patients on low incomes, are frustrated that their patients' health is adversely affected by social determinants. For those patients with an acute or chronic illness, social determinants undercut the effectiveness of the burgeoning number of drugs and other treatments. Although this problem is usually considered a public-health issue, experience in the USA and abroad suggests a new way to transform the health-care system to address these social determinants: train lawyers to work as part of the health-care team to enforce the laws and regulations that are in place to protect health.