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In their commentary "Reducing Legal Risk by Practicing Patient-Centered Medicine," Forster et al¹ suggest that physicians could avoid many malpractice suits by practicing skilled medicine, improving their communication skills, and treating patients and their families respectfully, to mention a few of their recommendations. The authors seem not to acknowledge that many physicians are hardworking, intelligent, and vigorously trained individuals who have been dedicated to doing precisely that. It is evident that such physicians would not turn to fruitless defensive practices if they believed that simply practicing good medicine would protect them from being sued.

Many of the assertions offered by Forster et al to support their hypothesis are misleading. They reassure us that "as long as the physician acted as other physicians would have, he or she should not be found liable for malpractice." Unfortunately, there is a world of difference between should not be found liable for malpractice and . . . [Full Text of this Article]