Your Practice

CMECNE

So You Want to be an Expert Witness?

Learning Objectives and CME/Disclosure Information

This activity is intended for healthcare providers delivering care to women and their families.

After completing this activity, the participant should be better able to:

1. List the qualifications to be an expert witness
2. Explain how the role of an expert is to educate a judge and jury about medical standards and outcomes

Estimated time to complete activity: 0.25 hours

Faculty:

Susan J. Gross, MD, FRCSC, FACOG, FACMG
President and CEO, The ObG Project

Disclosure of Conflicts of Interest

Postgraduate Institute for Medicine (PIM) requires instructors, planners, managers and other individuals who are in a position to control the content of this activity to disclose any real or apparent conflict of interest (COI) they may have as related to the content of this activity. All identified COI are thoroughly vetted and resolved according to PIM policy. PIM is committed to providing its learners with high quality CME activities and related materials that promote improvements or quality in healthcare and not a specific proprietary business interest of a commercial interest.

Faculty: Susan J. Gross, MD, receives consulting fees from Cradle Genomics, and has financial interest in The ObG Project, Inc.

Planners and Managers: The PIM planners and managers, Trace Hutchison, PharmD, Samantha Mattiucci, PharmD, CHCP, Judi Smelker-Mitchek, MBA, MSN, RN, and Jan Schultz, MSN, RN, CHCP have nothing to disclose.

Method of Participation and Request for Credit

Fees for participating and receiving CME credit for this activity are as posted on The ObG Project website. During the period from Dec 31 2017 through Dec 31 2021, participants must read the learning objectives and faculty disclosures and study the educational activity.

If you wish to receive acknowledgment for completing this activity, please complete the post-test and evaluation. Upon registering and successfully completing the post-test with a score of 100% and the activity evaluation, your certificate will be made available immediately.

For Pharmacists: Upon successfully completing the post-test with a score of 100% and the activity evaluation form, transcript information will be sent to the NABP CPE Monitor Service within 4 weeks.

Joint Accreditation Statement

In support of improving patient care, this activity has been planned and implemented by the Postgraduate Institute for Medicine and The ObG Project. Postgraduate Institute for Medicine is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.

Physician Continuing Medical Education

Postgraduate Institute for Medicine designates this enduring material for a maximum of 0.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

Continuing Nursing Education

The maximum number of hours awarded for this Continuing Nursing Education activity is 0.2 contact hours.

Read Disclaimer & Fine Print

To win a medical malpractice lawsuit, a patient must typically prove three basic elements

The existence of a healthcare provider-patient relationship
The doctor’s negligence in providing treatment
That the patient was in fact harmed by that negligence

The heart of almost every medical malpractice case centers on whether the healthcare provider’s actions or lack of action injured the patient.

To prove negligence, it is usually necessary to retain an expert medical witness who has experience with the kind of procedure or health condition in question. The role of the expert is to educate the judge and jury about the standard of care. The expert does not necessarily have to be from the local community.

To qualify as an expert witness, the person must generally meet the following qualifications:

Experience and knowledge in the relevant areas of clinical medicine to be able to testify about the applicable standards of care at the time of the occurrence. Being clinically active in the specialty is critical. Clinical activity means examining patients, operating, teaching, or consulting.
Provide fair and impartial testimony about all the medical facts to ensure a just verdict is reached
The physician’s testimony must reflect an evaluation of performance in light of generally accepted standards, neither condemning performance that falls within generally accepted practice standards nor endorsing or condoning performance that falls below these standards. Experts and their testimony should recognize that medical decisions often must be made in the absence of diagnostic and prognostic certainty.
Distinguish clearly between medical malpractice and medical maloccurrence. In other words, state the difference between substandard care leading to a bad outcome as opposed to providing appropriate care but still having a bad outcome.
Determine whether a deviation from a practice standard was related to the bad outcome.
Be prepared to have prior testimony subjected to peer review.

Learn More – Primary Sources:

ACOG Committee Opinion 374: Expert Testimony

Affidavits of Merit

Expert Witnesses

Take a post-test and get CME credits

TAKE THE POST TEST

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So You Want to be an Expert Witness?