September 11, 2023 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the September 2023 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in entirety, please subscribe today.

Connecticut Supreme Court Narrows Scope of COVID Immunity for Medical Liability Claims
The Connecticut Supreme Court last month determined that Gov. Ned Lamont’s pandemic-era executive order, which granted healthcare professionals and healthcare facilities immunity from civil liabilities resulting from care delivered in support of the state’s COVID-19 response during the public health emergency, did not apply in two medical malpractice cases …

Who Pays the Liability Bills When Artificial Intelligence Kills?
Modern AI systems are based on statistical methods. As providers increasingly rely on AI to make critical decisions, its statistical nature guarantees that certain AI systems will not perform as intended on some occasions, leading to more and more AI-related disputes. So, the question of who pays when something goes wrong dominates much of the debate surrounding AI in medicine as well as in other industries. The concept of “wrong” ranges from physical harm to privacy violations to biases that can be more easily perpetuated by AI on social media platforms …

Rate of ‘Serious Discipline’ of Physicians by State Medical Boards Drops from Previous Benchmark
A new analysis of disciplinary actions taken by state medical boards between 2019 and 2021 determined that Michigan disciplined physician misconduct at a higher rate than any other state, but the analysis also indicates an overall decline in the rate of serious disciplinary actions when compared to the rate between 2017 and 2019 …

Indemnity Payments Swell During Second Quarter for MPL Specialty Writers
Indemnity payments for the MPL industry have continued to rise through the second quarter 2023. A composite of MPL writers experienced a prolonged slowdown in indemnity payments for about 18 months from the second quarter 2020 through the third quarter 2021. In the last three quarters, the composite has seen the three largest quarterly indemnity payments on record, with the second quarter 2023 coming in at nearly $775 million. Based on the depth of the decline in indemnity payments after the pandemic started and general severity concerns in the industry, the composite may expect these sizable levels of indemnity payments to persist as the industry tries to dig out of the hole created by the court slowdown that the COVID-19 pandemic caused …

US Senator Questions Google About its AI Healthcare Chatbot Technology
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, urged Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai to provide greater clarity into his company’s deployment of Med-PaLM 2, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot currently being tested in healthcare settings. In a letter sent last month to the multinational technology company, Sen. Warner expressed his concern about reports of inaccuracies in the technology, calling on Google to increase transparency, protect patient privacy and ensure ethical guardrails ...

Is Artificial Intelligence Ready For Healthcare Applications?
What use could healthcare have for someone who makes things up, can’t keep a secret, doesn’t really know anything, and, when speaking, simply fills in the next word based on what’s come before? Lots, if that individual is the newest form of artificial intelligence, according to some of the biggest companies out there. Companies pushing the latest AI technology — known as “generative AI” — are piling on. Google and Microsoft want to bring types of so-called large language models to healthcare. Big firms that are familiar to folks in white coats — but maybe less so to your average Joe and Jane — are equally enthusiastic. Electronic medical records giants Epic and Oracle Cerner aren’t far behind. The space is crowded with start-ups, too …

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