How issues of professional liability are taught in U.S. medical schools

This study investigated how medicolegal issues--specifically those concerning professional liability--are treated in U.S. medical school education. The author mailed a questionnaire in mid-1989 to all 127 U.S. medical schools that were accredited at that time and to the five medical school campuses of the University of Illinois; 120 (90%) responded. Of these, 73 (61%) reported that they included topics about professional liability in their educational curricula. Twenty-three of the schools indicated that students' training had been "compromised or jeopardized" by the impact of physicians' concerns about medicolegal issues. Forty-seven of the schools had students who had been named in malpractice suits. The study shows that undergraduate medical education has been significantly affected by issues of professional liability. Relevant medicolegal content should be an integral part of medical school education.