NEWSLETTER 1: MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CRISIS

We hear that there is a medical malpractice crisis in America. That is, we are suing Doctors for bad outcomes when no error exists. The Doctor's malpractice company pays a lot of money to make non-meritorious cases go away most cost effectively. The patient comes in to see us complaining of a headache. We order an expensive work up, including a head cat scan, even though it is not indicated as part of defensive medicine. While you are telling your Doctor that you have a headache, he has to think not only what you need to relieve your symptoms, but what he needs to do to diminish the chances that the patient's lawyer is going to come back and accuse him of not doing something correct. Clearly there is something drastically wrong with our current system. The patient wants to be told to take a Tylenol and call back if there's a problem. The Doctor should not have to worry about losing his home for failure to diagnosis the rare case of brain cancer that presents with a headache.

One possible solution is to hold the expert witness' accountable for their testimony. That is, in every medical malpractice case their is at least one medical expert witness providing misleading testimony if not flat-out lying. There appears to be little if any liability for their bad deeds. In fact, it is currently possible for a medical expert witness to testify for an issue in one court and testify against the same issue the next day in another court. I think this is at the heart of our medical malpractice problem.

I propose that their should be a residency training program in legal medicine that leads to a license to be an expert witness. Furthermore, there should be stiff penalties for any doctor caught misrepresenting the facts. Under such a system, patients and Doctors would both benefit. And, the legal system would benefit as the truth would come out forth right with less need to spend money working the case.

Sincerely:

Joseph Saponaro, MD, DABIM, FACP, CPI, CCI, CCTI, CCRC, CCRP
Expert Medical Witness, ExpertMD
PI (Principal Investigator), DSI (Drug Study Institute)
Board Certified Internist, JPMC (Jupiter Preventive Medicine Center)
DABIM (Diplomat American Board of Internal Medicine)
FACP (Fellow American College of Physicians)
CPI (Certified Physician Investigator) by the AAPP (American Academy of Pharmaceutical Physicians)
CCTI (Certified Clinical Trial Investigator) by the ACRP (Association of Clinical Research Professionals)
CCI (Certified Clinical Investigator) by the DIA (Drug Information Association)
CCRC (Certified Clinical Research Coordinator) by the ACRP (Association of Clinical Research Professionals)
CCRP (Certified Clinical Research Professional) by SoCRA (Society of Clinical Research Associates)
Member, SIMPD (Society for Innovative Medical Practice Design)
Member, ACPM (American College Preventive Medicine)
Ethics Committee Member, Jupiter Medical Center
IRB Member, Jupiter Medical Center
Founder, CertifiedResearchers.com

Melody I. Sanger, BSN, RN, MD, CPI, CCRI, CCRC, CCRP
Director of Clinical Research
Melody@DrugStudy.MD

Joseph Saponaro, MD, DABIM, FACP, CPI, CCRI, CCRC, CCRP
Principal Investigator and Expert MD
Pi@DrugStudy.MD

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