It’s good to be back in my part of the blogosphere. Today I noticed a couple of medmal-related posts from KevinMD. Kevin posts on Defensive Medicine in the News, that two recent articles confirm his own conviction that “defensive medicine” is a way that medical malpractice litigation is costing everyone. The articles are, “Lawsuits Change Medical Practices,” and “Don’t Underestimate Defensive Medicine.” They are both well worth reading.

The other post at KevinMD links a story in the Boston Globe that “Weis won’t appeal jury’s verdict.” He quotes Weis, who lost his lawsuit against a couple of doctors he accused of malpractice:

In my case, obesity nearly led to death. Corrective major surgery always has risks, but a patient should never be viewed as the bad guy when problems occur that could be prevented. Never let doctors blame you for having elective surgery as they get paid handsomely and have the right to refuse.

It is true that a doctor who agreed to perform a surgery should not blame a patient for making a decision he agreed with. At the same time, no surgery is risk-free and that’s the way the jury saw it in this case.

But it is also worth pointing out that doctors are, in fact, opting out of certain high-risk fields because of medical malpractice concerns–leaving patients worse off than they would be if medmal risks were not so great. Mammogram readers are just one example of this trend. Spreading the idea that doctors are fair game simply because they have agreed to practice risky medicine that patients want seems like an effective way of producing a society in which no one is willing to help patients in dire straits.