The medical liability litigation industry and how to defeat it - A challenge for management science

Abstract

Suspicion of fault is toxic to a trusting relationship between physicians and patients. It is even more toxic to the interest of justice. A medical liability litigation industry rises from this suspicion of fault and prospers at the expense of physicians, patients and justice. Lawyers are part of the medical liability litigation industry; so, too, are expert witnesses, who are also physicians. Byrom vs. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center is illustrative of the impact of suspicion of fault. Inductive reasoning is the conventional way lawsuits are argued. It is the critical success factor used by lawyers and expert witnesses on both sides to showcase their most favorable evidence. However, deductive reasoning is also an acceptable form of legal reasoning. It is completely consistent with the ethical requirement of doctors acting in the capacity of medical experts to remain objective. It analyzes all evidence, favorable or not. Although organized medicine has authority over doctors who are expert witnesses, until now, it does nothing to hold expert witnesses accountable to ethical obligations. The consequences are verdicts like that of Byrom vs Johns Hopkins. Healthcare management science offers a solution to this dilemma. A methodology of deductive reasoning, which is used as a best practice for medical experts, is a means to hold experts accountable to the highest principles of jurisprudence and professional ethics and separates experts from the interests of the medical liability litigation industry.