ANN ARBOR, MI -The public is invited to attend a free University of Michigan Health System symposium focusing on legal issues in medicine, including medical malpractice policy reform, on Tuesday, Nov. 23, from 8 a.m. to noon. It will take place in the Sheldon Auditorium of the Towsley Center within the U-M medical center, at 1500 E. Medical Center Dr., Ann Arbor.

Robert P. Kelch, M.D., U-M executive vice president for medical affairs and CEO of the U-M Health System, will open the symposium, which is titled “ Leading Medical Legal Reform.” The event will feature the following nationally recognized speakers

• John Nelson, M.D., president, American Medical Association presenting “A Professional Society Leadership in Medical-Legal Tort Reform” Discussant : Darrell Campbell, M.D., chief of clinical affairs and professor of surgery, U-M Health System
  
• Richard Boothman, J.D., assistant general counsel, University of Michigan Health System presenting “Health System Reform Efforts for Tort Reform”
  Discussant : Marilynn M. Rosenthal, Ph.D., professor of medical sociology, U-M Dearborn , and director of the U-M Forum on Health Policy
  
• Joseph Schwarz, M.D., U.S. House of Representatives-elect; former Michigan state senator and otolaryngologist presenting “Legislative and Political Reform Efforts of Medical-Legal Tort”
  Discussant : John Billi, M.D., professor of internal medicine and associate dean for clinical affairs, U-M Medical School .
  
• Troyen Brennan, M.D., J.D., M.P.H., professor of Medicine, Law and Public Health, Harvard University; president of the Brigham and Women's Physician Organization presenting ”Academic Perspectives on Leading Medical-Legal Reform”
  Discussant : Peter Jacobson, J.D., M.P.H., professor of health management and policy, U-M School of Public Health

Each guest speaker will be challenged by a discussant to help highlight important issues and challenges of leading reform.

The symposium offers health care professionals, policy makers and citizens an opportunity to explore medical legal reform from government, health system, professional society and academic perspectives. In addition to general discussion about contemporary leadership strategies and challenges, the symposium is a forum for generating ideas to stimulate future research and collaborative efforts.

“The multidisciplinary focus of the symposia will help highlight the challenges and opportunities in creating solutions for our nation's current medical-legal crisis”, said symposium organizer, Scott Ransom, D.O., M.B.A., M.P.H., who directs the U-M's Program for Healthcare Improvement and Leadership Development and is scientific director of the U-M's Griffith Leadership Center.

The American Medical Association has declared 20 medical-legal ‘crisis' states, and Michigan is classified as a state “showing problem signs”. Meanwhile, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology reports that one in seven obstetricians have quit obstetrics due to the malpractice crisis. Currently, only 65 percent of the nation's obstetrics and gynecology residency slots are filled by graduates of American medical schools.

“This is unheard of for our once very competitive field,” said Ransom who also is an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the U-M Medical School and of health management policy at the School of Public Health. “This is an issue of a patient's access to high quality care and that should be a concern to all Americans. The situation has driven experienced obstetricians out of business and has reduced our students' collective interest in the profession.”

The symposium will conclude with a group panel discussion featuring all of the speakers and facilitated by Ransom.

For more information, visit www.med.umich.edu/obgyn/HealthServicesResearch/MedicalLegal.pdf or call (734) 615-4575.

Written by Allison Krieger

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