Journal of Forensic Biomechanics

Abstract

Medical Malpractice, Defective Product/Technology and their Rules of Engagement – Is it time to re-think?

George Gregory Buttigieg

The article reviews some aspects of medico-legal jurisprudence involving adverse effects related to the use of bio-medical products and medical technology. It looks at crucial points of interaction and puts forwards damage limitation suggestions involving both the medical as well as the legal fronts. While evaluating the rapid and intrepid use of ever more intricate technology, the author draws attention to the increasing complexity of medical technology playing major roles in diagnosis and treatment, increasing the window of potential malpractice and liability. Briefly reviewing historical and current Court attitudes in general, the article emphasizes the urgent need to pause, reflect and modify as needed by the changes of current practice and its projected future.
The author also quotes the 2015 critically important UK Supreme Court ruling in Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board (2015) both for its relevance in the general arguments levied here, as well as for the opportunity it provides for reviewing the worrying aspects of medic-legal jurisprudence analyzed here.
While, by no means condemning the rapid advances of medical technology, the author strongly stresses that it is time to re-think the basic rules of clinical application of medical technology as well as the complex inter-play at medico-legal jurisprudence level.