FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. Ð Robert B. Leflar, University of Arkansas law professor, will spend the next academic year at Harvard University and the University of Tokyo as a recipient of the prestigious Social Science Research Council's Abe (pronounced Ah-bay) Fellowship. He was awarded the highly competitive fellowship for his proposed project, "A Comparison of Health Care Quality Control Structures in Japan and the U.S."

"The law school is very pleased that Professor Leflar has received this distinguished grant," said Robert Moberly, dean of UA's School of Law. "His work is an important part of the UniversityÕs increased role in world affairs."

LeflarÕs year-long project will examine attempts by Japan and the United States to improve quality control in medicine by reducing the toll of deaths and injuries from medical mistakes. He will focus on the two nations' medical malpractice systems, the incentive structures in their health care payment systems, their professional licensure and discipline systems, and patients' access to medical information.

"This will be a wonderful opportunity to suggest ways in which each countryÕs medical and legal profession can learn from the advances in the other country and avoid the errors that cause injuries to patients," said Leflar, who is also an adjunct professor of medical humanities at UA's College of Medicine in Little Rock. "Both Japan and America are struggling to provide first-rate health care at affordable cost while protecting patientsÕ rights, and neither country has yet figured how to do it."

He leaves for Harvard School of Public Health in September 2000, and will then be at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law the first seven months of 2001. He will return to the U of A in the fall of that year.

He has long been interested in Japan, its people and institutions. This interest began while he was an undergraduate student at Harvard and took a course on Japanese government and history taught by Edwin Reichauer, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Japan under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

Leflar began studying the Japanese language while still at Harvard, where he received both a law degree and a master's degree in public health. He also attended the University of Tokyo and Waseda University in Japan where he furthered his knowledge of the language and country.

He has previously received Fulbright and Japan Foundation grants for research in Japan, and in 1992 taught a course, in Japanese, on American products liability law at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Law. That year he also stumped for Bill Clinton in Japan where, as a member of the Democrats Abroad in Japan during ClintonÕs first run for the presidency, he represented Clinton on national television.

In addition, he has published numerous articles in law journals and other publications on health issues in Japan and the United States, writing some of the articles in Japanese.

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