Scrutiny for doctors as expert witnesses?

Physicians at a CEJA open forum discussed accountability for bad medical testimony and disparities in and access to health care.

By Damon Adams, AMNews staff. July 7, 2003.

Chicago -- A. Bernard Ackerman, MD, believes giving bad expert witness testimony is akin to practicing bad medicine.

"This is a widespread problem," Dr. Ackerman told physicians gathered at the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs open forum during the AMA Annual Meeting. "Do you think that doctors who lie in court do that only in court? They lie to patients."

Dr. Ackerman, a dermatopathologist in New York City and founder of the Coalition and Center for Ethical Medical Testimony, was asked by the council to speak at the forum about expert witness testimony.

Dr. Ackerman discussed a few cases in which he questioned testimony given by medical experts. He shared his concerns in the cases and said doctors should be sanctioned for bad testimony, just as they would for practicing bad medicine.

"It's nothing less than fraud against the public," he said later. "The only way this can be stopped is if we physicians do something about it. Can't we really police ourselves?"

Several doctors at the forum agreed that medical testimony should be closely scrutinized.

"Physicians who give false testimony should be brought to task," said psychiatrist Robert Phillips, MD, a representative of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

But Stuart Gitlow, MD, MPH, said talking about medicine on the stand is not the same as practicing medicine.

"How can we have the practice of medicine when the physician has not seen the patient?" said Dr. Gitlow, a delegate for the American Society of Addiction Medicine.