Dianne advises a variety of health care clients on a broad range of issues, including licensure, regulatory, contractual, and risk management matters, and patient care. As former in-house counsel to an academic medical center, a large part of her practice involves counseling researchers and research sponsors in matters related to FDA and OHRP regulated clinical research, including patient consent, access to and use of tissue and associated patient information, and the Institutional Review Board process. In addition, Dianne currently serves as a Vice Chair of AHLA's Health Care Reform Education Task Force.
She also counsels health care clients and other business entities on a broad range of privacy and data security issues, including the HIPAA Privacy Rule and Security Standards, including requirements under HITECH and the HIPAA Omnibus Rule, 42 CFR Part 2, and state-imposed medical privacy laws. She regularly assists clients with data breach response and mitigation, the implementation of HIPAA-mandated policies and procedures, privacy audits, third-party requests for information, and review of HIPAA-related contracts and forms. She has successfully defended clients in both civil and criminal HIPAA enforcement actions and regularly assists clients with the management of data breaches and other losses of protected health information.
Before joining Mintz, Dianne was an associate staff attorney at the Lahey Clinic, where she provided general counsel services to medical, professional, and administrative staff. She also served as counsel to the Institutional Review Board, the Ethics Committee, the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Committee, and the Genetics Advisory Board. Before joining the Lahey Clinic’s legal staff, she worked in the research administration department. Her responsibilities included drafting a regulatory compliance manual detailing laws of concern in basic, clinical, and animal research, continually reviewing relevant regulations to ensure compliance for institutional programs, and researching and advising clients on a broad range of regulatory matters.
Dianne was the first Suffolk University law student to graduate with a concentration in Health Care and Biomedical Law. She formerly served as an adjunct professor at Stonehill College, teaching an undergraduate Health Care Law course.
More Legal and Business Bylines From Dianne J. Bourque
- Health Care Privacy and Security In 2024: Six Critical Topics to Watch - (Posted On Thursday, January 25, 2024)
- Are You Ready? How to Prepare for the End of OCR’s Public Health Emergency HIPAA Enforcement Discretion - (Posted On Tuesday, May 02, 2023)
- OCR Proposes HIPAA Amendments to Protect Reproductive Health Care Information - (Posted On Thursday, April 13, 2023)
- Is Your Website Collecting PHI Under OCR's New Tracking Technologies Bulletin? - (Posted On Wednesday, December 07, 2022)
- Protecting Health Information Post Roe – Part 2: Steps for Health Care Providers - (Posted On Thursday, July 21, 2022)
- Protecting Health Information Post Roe Part 1: Steps for Women - (Posted On Tuesday, July 05, 2022)
- The Risks of HIPAA Non-Compliance Can Survive – and Even Grow – Post Closing - (Posted On Thursday, June 03, 2021)
- Fifth Circuit Vacates $4.3M HIPAA Penalty and Potentially Opens the Door for Future HIPAA Enforcement Challenges - (Posted On Monday, January 25, 2021)
- HIPAA Amendments and Other Trump Regulatory Actions on Hold - (Posted On Thursday, January 21, 2021)
- HIPAA 2021 – What Can We Expect? - (Posted On Monday, December 28, 2020)