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Medical Justice Pushing Gag Order

By Ben Glass

<p>A 9-year outfit called Medical Justice has been pushing a gag order doctors can make patients sign to prevent them from criticizing the doctors online as part of a broader service for the purpose of protecting doctors from medical malpractice judgments.<br /> <br /> This practice has been around for several years, but a recent story from the Associated Press has raised controversy around the issue.<br /> <br /> Greensboro, North Carolina entrepreneur Jeffrey Segal, the man behind the site, insists that he is not opposed to sites such as Angie's List and RateMDs, but claims they can do doctors great harm because they are not regulated.<br /> <br /> Advocates of getting doctors online are appalled by the practice. MyDocHub called the gag orders 'an attack on First Amendment rights,' and ePatients.Net referred to it as an 'almost comical attempt to hold back the tide.' RateMDs simply called it 'repulsive.'<br /> <br /> There has also been grumbling among consumer advocates.<br /> <br /> Medical Justice said on its blog that it wants sites like Drscore.com to create a 'scientifically validated survey methodology' that it can be in support of. The group claims that it endorses the idea of getting doctors online.<br /> <br /> DrScore is a Web site that provides a list of doctors and asks that visitors take a survey on theirs, using numbers from 0-10 and various metrics. However, it has yet to obtain a statistically-significant sample on many doctors.<br /> <br /> In contrasts, sites such as RateMDs allow anonymous comments that can see one unhappy visit lead to an online war of words.</p><a href="http://northernvirginia.injuryboard.com/medical-malpractice/medical-justice-pushing-gag-order.aspx?googleid=258780">Originally posted</a> at <a href="http://www.InjuryBoard.com">InjuryBoard</a> by <a href="http://www.injuryboard.com/Ben-Glass/">Ben Glass</a>

Full post as published by Northern Virginia Personal Injury Lawyer on May 29, 2009 (boomark / email).