Center addresses Perinatal Medicine and Law for residents.(Obstetrics)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Ob.gyn. residents learn about some pregnancy complications that are so rare that many will never encounter such cases during their careers. Yet few get trained to handle a problem that three-quarters of obstetricians will face at least once--a lawsuit, Dr. William M. Gilbert said at a meeting on antepartum and intrapartum management sponsored by the University of California, San Francisco.

"I teach my residents how to deal with amniotic fluid embolism or thrombotic thrombocytopenia purpura," said Dr. Gilbert, professor of ob.gyn. at the University of California, Davis. But until recently there was no mechanism at his institution for familiarizing residents with medical malpractice lawsuits.

That is, until he founded the Center for Perinatal Medicine and Law, which has sponsored several mock trials and mock depositions in grand rounds sessions for students and residents in ob.gyn., pediatrics, anesthesia, and radiology. The center has offered a similar session for physicians practicing in the community.

Using interactive technology, observers acted as the jury in the trials. Discussions afterward explored what happened during the trials, he said.

He and an attorney who helped start the programs were motivated by statistics from a liability survey by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which covered the period of 1999-2003. The ...