Trends in Surgical Litigation and Media Coverage of Medical Malpractice: Implications for Medical Education

Surgery is one of the specialties experiencing the most medical malpractice lawsuits. The main purpose of this two-year investigation is to explore the incidence and trends in medical malpractice lawsuits, with a focus on surgery, and to examine both the media coverage of medical litigations. We also plan to investigate the perceptions and experiences of cosmetic surgeons in managing medical disputes. The first year of research will be spent reviewing the existing literature and conducting both secondary analyses and content analyses. The literature review will be performed mainly to explore the existing research and strategies concerning medical disputes and medical malpractice lawsuits. Secondary data analyses will be conducted to analyze the data regarding medical malpractice lawsuits in the nationwide database managed by the Ministry of Health. The content analysis will include an analysis of the media coverage of medical malpractice disputes in four major print media databases (i.e., Apple Daily, Liberty Times, United Daily News, and China Times). The second year of the research will be dedicated to conducting a mail questionnaire surveying all the cosmetic surgeons that are members of the related Medical Association, as well as conducting in-depth interviews with physicians, patients, and journalists. The expected results of this study would be beneficial to the development of health policies and physician-patient communication strategies. Furthermore, as this issue is one facing many physicians, these results may also be used to guide curriculum planning in medical education.