Jacob Jorem, MD, JD

Jacob Jorem, MD, JD, is a psychiatrist, lawyer, and researcher working at the intersection of mental health policy, health law, and bioethics. He is a Joint Fellow-in-Residence at the Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University and the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics, where his research examines clinical decision-making—particularly clinicians’ application of the law—and priority setting in mental health care.

Previously, he was a Harkness Fellow in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, focusing on improving access to and the quality of mental health care. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University while pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD on capacity-based mental health legislation, and he has served as an Assistant Professor at the University of Oslo. Jacob has authored several scientific articles, reports, and a book chapter, and he has extensive teaching experience.

His expertise is informed by work across government, litigation, clinical practice, and ethics committees. In public service, Jacob led the Secretariat for Norway’s Expert Committee on Decision-Making Capacity, contributing to key policy recommendations for the mental health system. As a senior adviser at the Norwegian Directorate of Health, he provided authoritative interpretations of the Norwegian Mental Health Care Act and represented the government in court proceedings. Clinically, he served as a chief physician in adult psychiatric services in Oslo. He has also contributed to ethics committees at Oslo University Hospital.