To familiarize the reader with the scope of liability and the total payment of federal medical malpractice claims by the Judgment Fund Branch of the Financial Management Service of the Department of the Treasury.  To consider the possible legal ramifications and requisite standard of care when shoulder dystocia is encountered during vaginal delivery.  To highlight legal and medical parameters involving the prescription of hormone replacement therapy for breast cancer survivors.  To acquaint physicians with the national effort to create a central system for reporting medical errors.  To emphasize the importance of autopsies as quality control and risk management tools, and to explain the benefits of autopsies and why the rates have declined drastically.  To explore legal issues raised by the provision of medical information and treatment through the Internet.  To examine the applicable standard of care that courts apply when physicians, such as Family Practitioners, perform procedures often or usually performed by other specialists.  To identify medical-legal liability issues that arise from medication errors.  To review the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology's role as a "people's institute" by furthering public/private knowledge in the years to come.

Views expressed in this course are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the military services, or the Department of Defense.  Legal Medicine offers medicolegal education for health care providers and does not establish policy or define a standard of care.  This course gives no specific recommendations concerning patient diagnosis or treatment, but instead is designed to highlight problem areas of liability in medical practice and facilitate risk management efforts.  If legal advice is required, it should be obtained from appropriate military or other federal legal counsel or from a civilian professional for non-federal physicians.