Title: Medicolegal implications of consensus statements.(Fourth
Annual American College of Chest Physicians Consensus
Conference on Antithrombotic Therapy, April 1995, Tucson,
Citation: Chest, Oct 1995 v108 n4 p502S(4)
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Subjects: Practice guidelines (Medicine)_Standards
Thrombolytic therapy_Standards
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Full Text COPYRIGHT American College of Chest Physicians 1995
The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a new format to be used for consensus statements in the january 4, 1995, issue. Emphasis was placed on a clear definition of the objective of the statement, the basis for the selection of the participants, the manner in which the evidence was reviewed and evaluated, the manner in which "consensus" was developed, and the conclusions of the consensus conference.[1] An explanatory editorial presented the thinking behind this new format in a clear and helpful manner.[2] This section will consider the medicolegal aspects of the consensus conference according to the proposed new JAMA format. Since each of these areas bears importantly on the legal weight of the product of the consensus conference, we will consider the legal implications according to the new JAMA format.
A principle legal function of the consensus conference product is to reflect the "standard of care" in a particular area. This is particularly true when the conference product is intended to codify practice guidelines as is the case in this conference. While this product may reflect the standard of care in normative terms, application of that standard to a specific set of circumstances, as in the court room in the course of malpractice litigation, may be difficult since a number of other determinants enter into the equation, not the least of whi...