Focus responsabilità medica, medicina difensiva, medicina narrativa

The problem of medical liability and of defensive medicine requires multi-disciplinary, complex, responses. The phenomena of malpractice and defensive medicine need to be closely understood in their causes and developments, so as to develop sound measures to prevent them more effectively. The Centro Studi “Federico Stella” sulla Giustizia penale e la Politica criminale (CSGP), Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, sets forth a proposal, stemming from a double, long-term, set of researches. Combining the innovative suggestions for health care and crime policies coming, respectively, form narrative-based medicine and the Law & Literature Movement, with responsive regulation and restorative justice models, CSGP’s proposals give birth to a whole new concept of prevention of medical malpractice and defensive medicine. The narrative approach in medical practice is linked to regulatory and justice systems capable of promoting, on one hand, “environmental” conditions that reduce medical errors and defensive attitudes, and foster, on the other, spontaneous compliance and disclosure of errors and near misses. This focus gives the floor to multi-disciplinary contributions by medicine, psychology, criminal law, and organizational science experts, to further test the overall scientific idea.