Judges hit classroom to learn about medicine

A lesson: Understanding physician-patient communication is key to interpreting complex cases.

By Amy Lynn Sorrel, AMNews staff. April 17, 2006.

Physicians know that scientific evidence in medical liability cases can be a tough subject for judges to grasp.

To help educate them and restore doctors' sometimes shaky confidence in the legal system, the National Judges' Medical School was established in March to give nearly 70 federal and state judges more understanding of the complexity of patient care.

Guided by doctors, scientists and judges, the school provided medical science knowledge judges could use to help them with their cases and allow them to become a resource for others. The effort to assist judges in resolving cases in the fairest, most expeditious way possible is believed to be the first of its kind. It grew out of the Einstein Institute for Science, Health and the Courts, a nongovernmental organization paid for by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Physicians say the judges' medical school might help repair a legal system that has put them in the business of practicing defensive medicine.

"What we see a lot in courtrooms is that people have bad results but not necessarily bad medicine," said Benjamin Calvo, MD, a surgical oncologist and professor at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Medical School, who taught at the judges' medical school.

Judges from eight states and the District of Columbia immersed themselves in a weekend curriculum at UNC focusing on an area that often leads to physicians being sued -- cancer. Classes included hands-on courses in cancer screening and technology, genetic causes of cancer, and interactions between doctors and patients.