Online Sources of Support

Medical and Specialty Societies

The American Medical Association website (www.ama-assn.org) is a superb resource for information on the current medical liability climate. Click on Medical Liability Reform on the home page or link directly to www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/7861.html, where there are links to updates on national and state legislative activities, a physician action kit, and a medical liability member survey. Some of these links are designated as restricted to AMA members.

• Medical Liability Reform—Now! (www.ama-assn.org/go/mlrnow)
  A useful downloadable compendium of facts supporting liability reform and challenging arguments against reform. Users should check to clarify if they are viewing the latest version of the document.

Many Specialty Societies have web-based materials that provide support for members who are involved in the litigation process. Physicians should search their own specialty society website for such materials. The public section of many specialty society home pages provide updates on professional liability related to the specific specialty society. Examples include:

• The American College of Emergency Physicians (http://www.acep.org/) provides public access to a downloadable article entitled "So You Have Been Sued." Use the search words, “so you have been sued.” For other related articles and resources use "litigation stress" and other related topics.
  
  
• The American Academy of Family Physicians (www.aafp.org) provides public access to articles related to professional liability and malpractice stress like "Coping with the Stress of Being Sued," by Chantal M.L.R. Brazeau from Family Practice Management, for example.
  
  
• The American College of Obstreticians and Gynecologists (www.acog.org) offers a recently developed CD-ROM for CME credit entitled “From Exam Room to Courtroom: Navigating Litigtation & Coping with Stress” available for purchase.
  
  
• The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) (www.acog.org) also provides the College’s latest survey on professional liability.
  
  
• The American College of Surgeons (www.facs.org) provides directions for ordering a Professional Liability Kit that contains information for Fellows involved in a medical malpractice suit. It also offers access to the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons that includes articles on litigation such as “Malpractice Litigation as a Disruptive Life Experience" by Sara Charles MD.
  
  
• American College of Physicians (/www.acponline.org/cgi-bin/htsearch) offers searches with such terms as "litigation" or "litigation stress" and posts articles such as, “Stress of the lawsuit can put physicians at risk for another” by Deborah Gesensway.
  
  
• American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (www.aaos.org) posts articles including “The Liability Stress Syndrome” by Frank B. Kelly MD and Mark C. Gebhardt, MD. For other articles, use search terms such as “litigation” on the AAOS Bulletin at www3.aaos.org/search/advSearch.asp.
  
  
• Texas Medical Association (www.texmed.org) provides a number of resources related to physician litigation stress including a CME program prepared by the TMA Committee on Physician Health and Rehabilitation entitled “Coping with Stress in the Practice of Medicine” that incorporates material on the specific stressor of Malpractice Litigation.