Medicolegal encounters in Canadian radiology

Canadian radiologists interacted with the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA) on 455 occasions between January 1983 and December 1987. The authors have reviewed and categorized these encounters: 55% were a direct result of a lawsuit against an individual radiologist; 28% were initiated by a radiologist who was seeking advice from the CMPA; 7% were requests by the radiologists for help in dealing with a complaint before a provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons. The 55% of encounters resulting in lawsuits are analysed in detail. They fell into four major categories: diagnostic errors (40%); complications of radiologic procedures (33%); patient injuries in a department of radiology (7%); and miscellaneous (20%). In addition to the categorization of cases, the authors make some generalizations about the costs of lawsuits against radiologists in Canada and present some illustrative case histories.