Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD - Medical Justice

The Role of the Internet in Doctor Performance Rating

August 15, 2024May 1, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Pain Physician Journal; May/June 2009 By: Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD, FACS Download Role_of_Internet_in_doctor_performance_rating_Pain_Physician_2009-May_

How to Avoid Malpractice Suits

August 15, 2024April 17, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

What you don’t do to head off malpractice claims can be as critical as what you do Medical Economics April 2009 By: Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD, FACS Nothing’s worse than having the first appointment of your day interrupted by an unpleasant surprise. Instead of the child who is running a fever or the father who’s … Read more

A Message to Colleagues: What I’ve Learned

August 15, 2024March 25, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Esquire Magazine features a regular column called “What I’ve Learned.” There, a celebrity or a leader in his field, and often in the twilight of his life, reels off a collection of pearls, some well polished, some of little value. I am not famous and my doctor assures me actuarially I am not in the twilight in my life. But, this is what I’ve learned, so far.

Medical Justice CEO and Founder Dr. Jeff Segal’s featured interview on NPR’s “On the Media” and “Talk of the Nation”

August 15, 2024March 24, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Click here to listen or to read the transcript

Great Advice from Patient Advocate

August 15, 2024March 14, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Patient advocate Trisha Torrey has some great advice about doctor rating sites. In a recent post she writes, “take other patients’ reviews with a grain of salt. We patients may be great at determining how nice a doctor is, but do you want your choice of doctor being influenced by someone who was just ticked … Read more

Balancing Shared Interests of Patients and Doctors

August 15, 2024March 4, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

This week, the national media continued its coverage of our services to protect physicians from Internet defamation. Several of these stories used the attention-grabbing headline of “gag order.” This statement could not be farther from the truth.

Mutual privacy agreements do not create a choice between healthcare and one’s right to free speech (as some have erroneously claimed). We recognize that medical errors can and do occur. There are existing processes and viable venues where patients can report bad experiences with physicians. For example, other doctors, lawyers, friends, state licensing boards, civil court and more.

We are not only doctors. We are patients and want to be able to choose the best healthcare professionals available so we receive the highest quality care. We agree that viable, actionable and statistically significant feedback is beneficial to patients and doctors alike. Unfortunately, most current rating sites fail at these criteria. We are diligently working to develop such a mechanism, utilizing the Internet, as an integral part of our long-term solution.

What are the facts?

Who we are: We are Medical Justice, an organization that is focused on serious proposals for reforming the entire healthcare system, not just for physicians, but also payers, and patients. These proposals, as well as discussions of our core offering, have been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific, legal, and policy conferences.

How we’re involved with the issue of online defamation:

Censorship, or Sensible Citizenship?

August 15, 2024February 25, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

There is an excellent article posted today on the Presdio Insurance website. Take a look at the article here; http://www.presidioinsurance.com/news/?p=362 This is an unsolicited and unbiased article. It does a great job of cutting through the hysteria of “censorhsip” and provides real clarity around the undelying issue. Thanks Presidio!

Our Goal, Transforming Healthcare

August 15, 2024February 23, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

You may have seen Medical Justice in the news lately: NYT (2/17/09), FOX News (2/19/09). Although Medical Justice Founder and neurosurgeon Dr Jeff Segal has highlighted the issues from a physicians point of view, some have criticized our program as a “gag order.” This could not be farther from the truth.

Medical Justice: Our organization is focused on serious proposals for reforming the entire healthcare system, not just for physicians, but also payers, and patients. These proposals, as well as discussions of our core offering, have been published in a number of peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific, legal, and policy conferences.

Noted Rater of Restaurants Brings Its Touch to Medicine – NY Times

August 15, 2024February 16, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

We continue to espouse the dangers of sites where patients can “rate” doctors. Medical care is simply far too complicated for such a simplistic approach. Today’s New York Times article “Noted Rater of Restaurants Brings Its Touch to Medicine” by Milt Freudenheim, discusses the Zagat-Wellpoint venture into a doctor ratings guide. The article cites Medical … Read more

The Octuplets: Standard of Care and a Lawsuit?

August 15, 2024February 16, 2009 by Jeffrey Segal, MD, JD

Patients often make requests for procedures that run counter to the doctor’s better judgment. Acceding to a patient’s wish, even after informing of dire consequences, can create a cascade of legal headaches for the accommodating doctor.

An extreme example is illustrated by a rare condition known as body integrity identity disorder (a subset categorized by the esoteric label – apotemnophilia- great trivia question). Here, the patient suffers from the desire / compulsion to have his limb amputated; the premise being that he would be happier living life as an amputee. Many such individuals seek surgical treatment; and most surgeons balk at participating. A rare cohort will bend if the patient has failed all other types of treatment, such as psychotherapy or medication. Not surprisingly, just informing the patient there are significant risks of amputation, such as bleeding, infection, phantom limb pain, and death will not immunize the doctor if such risks materialize.

“Just doing what the patient wants” made headlines recently. Here, a woman with six children allegedly had eight embryos implanted by a fertility clinic.

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