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Almost all clinicians carry malpractice insurance, but few of us really understand the definition of medical malpractice, let alone how its specifics should inform our daily work. And those specifics are changing now: An influential legal think tank has just revised its definition of malpractice substantially enough that experts believe the repercussions will start percolating through the courts.
Traditionally, the primary question U.S. courts have addressed in malpractice cases has been whether the clinician under investigation followed the “custom of the profession.” In other words, the court wants to know if the clinician provided “customary” care that other similarly qualified clinicians, working in similar circumstances, would have prov…