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PROFESSIONAL ISSUESGroup aims to weed out deficient medical expert witnessesThe organization offers a list of values it says indicate an expert is testifying truthfully and accurately.By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. Aug. 18, 2003. A newly formed group wants physicians who are angry about bad medical expert witness testimony to take their gripes out of the doctor's lounge to people who can do something about it. Two physicians fed up with medical expert witness testimony gathered lawyers and doctors and founded the Coalition and Center for Ethical Medical Testimony this summer. About 100 physicians have signed up so far. Their goal is to expose physicians who falsify credentials or mislead juries about standards of care, and they're planning to arm physicians with the tools necessary to do the job. "Most doctors don't have a clue about what you do if someone is out there lying," said Louise Andrew, MD, an emergency physician and lawyer who co-founded CCEMT. The group plans to teach doctors how to check out expert witness credentials to make sure they aren't overstated and how to track down testimony the physician may have given elsewhere. CCEMT also plans to alert physicians to the role that state medical societies, licensing boards and specialty societies can play in disciplining physicians who give bad expert testimony. "The key thing we can provide is networking and sharing of the actual expert testimony so they can apply it to their own cases," Dr. Andrew said. The group's motto is "Nothing but the truth." And they say the standard needs to apply to experts for both plaintiffs and defendants. CCEMT says an expert witness is likely being truthful when he or she: [...]
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Copyright 2003 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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From the vault: 5 years agoDoctors get a 1.5% pay hike as Congress passes Medicare reform Dec. 8, 2003 |
