Legal medicine contributions to patient safety. From ascertainment and evaluation to research in medical liability

Excerpt

We would like to congratulate Ferrara et al. for their thoughtful Guidelines on Methods of Ascertainment and Criteria of Evaluation in cases of suspected subjective medical liability [1]. Medical errors, patient safety and professional liability are worldwide concerns nowadays [2, 3]. Regulatory frameworks and national operative systems are certainly different from one country to another [2], but the scientific approach to cases ascertainment should not differ substantially across borders and this Guidelines will help favour the desired harmonisation of European legal medicine [4]. This homogenization of methods of ascertainment will definitively contribute to strengthen the guarantees in professional liability procedures, but this first step should be followed by a shift to prevention and patient safety. Claims data analysis could be the pathway to that new scenario. …