About Aaron
Aaron Kesselheim holds dual degrees in medicine and law and a liberal arts degree from Harvard. He earned an A.B. from Harvard University in 1992, an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1996 and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School in 1998. Those credentials shape a career split between clinical medicine, academic research and legal scholarship.
He began his clinical and academic work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Over the years he progressed through roles as a fellow, instructor and assistant and associate professor of medicine. In 2019 he is listed as a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, affiliated with Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His path shows steady advancement in hospital-based practice and medical education.
Kesselheim moved between clinical care and broader work on drug regulation, research ethics and health policy. His training as both physician and lawyer allows him to examine medical practice through legal and regulatory lenses. He has taught medical students and residents, supervised research teams and contributed to academic discussions on how medicines are developed, approved and monitored after approval.
Later in his career he took on roles in legal education. He served as a visiting professor in law at Yale Law School. In that capacity he taught law students and joined faculty conversations about regulation, public health law and the interface between clinical evidence and legal standards. His academic appointments have spanned two of the nation’s research universities and a major teaching hospital, combining classroom teaching with hospital responsibilities.
Colleagues describe his approach as methodical and evidence-based. He favors empirical research and policy analysis that can be tested and debated. He often participates in multidisciplinary work that brings together clinicians, statisticians, ethicists and legal scholars. The result is scholarship that addresses practical problems in drug policy, clinical trial design and how clinicians interpret regulatory guidance.
Outside formal titles he has been involved in mentoring junior faculty and trainees, helping them bridge clinical work and scholarly inquiry. His work has intersected with health policy discussions at both institutional and national levels. He continues to teach, publish and mentor while splitting time between medical and legal academic settings.
He currently holds an academic appointment that includes visiting professorship duties at Yale Law School and maintains a professorship in medicine affiliated with Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. His current practice focuses on the intersection of medical research, regulation and health law.
