The Indian Medical Association of New England (IMANE) recently organized a very successful workshop on “Emerging Trends in Technology and Professional Liability” at the Massachusetts Medical Society headquartered in Waltham, MA. There were nearly 75 people who attended the workshop.

Poornima Sangal, President Elect, IMANE, opened the luncheon workshop by introducing two guests Anu Bandopadhay from AASRA and Ravi Sakhuja from IAFPE. “AASRA's goal is to help women in need. We have centers in Cambridge, Lowell, Somerville and Woburn. Two years ago we used to receive 1-2 calls every 2-3 month. Now we typically receive five calls a week, and at least three of them are from women who are in need of lots of help,” said Bandopadhay. 

Ravi Sakhuja made an announcement about the new free clinic program for the entire community which is  jointly sponsored by IAFPE and IMANE. “7% of all physicians in this country are of Indian origin even though Indians make up less than 1% of the population and as such we need to provide at least 7% of the services,” said Sakhuja.

Lalit Savla, President, IMANE  welcomed members to the workshop and inroduced the program.  Emerging Trends – Overview of Malpractice Claims and Legal Perspective was the theme of the opening session and it was presented by Bonnie Ellis, ProMutual Group and Martin Foster, Esq., Foster and Eldridge, LLP. Ellis has been on both sides of the table. She started her career as a nurse and then was head nurse at Emerson Hospital. She now works in the Risk Management area. ProMutual Group insures 54% of the doctors in MA. According to Ellis, “In 2004, 77% of the lawsuits were settled without any indemnity payment. 98 cases went to trial out of which the defendant won 88% of the time. The average time from start to close for a lawsuit is 3.7 years and nearly $100M was paid in indemnity payments with average settlement of $496K. Even with the high medical insurance premium for doctors, the insurance industry pays out $1.54 for every dollar in insurance premium it collects.” The top reasons for medical lawsuits are related to birth injuries, breast, colon and cervical cancers, failure to diagnose infectious diseases and orthopedics. In addition, $12.6M was spent in defending lawsuits and typically each lawsuit these days include nurses/PA as defendants in addition to the doctor,” said Ellis.

Foster talked about the fragmentation of the insurance industry where formerly everybody used to ‘hold hands’ and worked towards a unified defense. He also spoke about the emerging field of medical malpractice tribunals. 

The final session dealt with a comprehensive overview of “MRI of Shoulder” by Ketan Patel, M.D., from the Shields Health Care Group and “MRI vs. CT” by John Knorr, D.O., from the  UMASS Memorial Health Care. 

Lokvani congratulates  IMANE, AASRA and IAFPE-NE on developing partnerships that can benefit the whole community. We hope these partnerships can become models for other community groups.

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