Also, regarding the original blog post, I agree that opening the federally employed docs to malpractice suits would result in a mass exodus.

Those medical environments are just medical disasters waiting to happen for a physician. You don’t really have any control over so many factors, and you have so many decisions…ones which in the civilian world would largely be completely up to you…dictated to you by folks whose sole qualification resides in their rank and/or seniority.

So, you’re the physician. Your practice is largely dictated to you by some high-rank RN, or worse, some high ranking person with NO medical background or training.

But as the physician, it is you who will be the target of any liability suit.

Of course there would be a mass exodus of physicians from such a system.

But now, here’s the real question that should be asked. Rather than opening up the federal physicians to easier lawsuits, shouldn’t we perhaps be looking to giving civilian physicians the same protections enjoyed by the feds?

Just a thought.

Does Sermo still have its friendly Terms of Service?

http://www.sermo.com/about/terms

Unless changed, by signing them you pledged your assets to reimburse them for any legal costs from your conduct. You agreed they had intellectual property rights to the content of your message. So if you describe a new invention to get opinions from colleagues, they may have rights to it. If someone uses your name, causes some infraction, you are responsible for the damages. That is true even if you never joined in reality. A Mexican med student timed it. In 5 minutes, he got the name and state license number of a real doctor, and joined as that doctor, with a nickname he gave the doctor and a secret password. The real doctor may not have heard of Sermo. If he had, he could not access his own account, because the med student had the password.

Most shocking of all?

Affiliation with the AMA.

http://www.sermo.com/about/partnering_opportunities/current_partners