A Useful Tool: Medical Animations

Medical malpractice is big business. Estimates are that medical liability costs in the U.S. exceed $40 billion annually. The stakes for both sides are terribly high. plaintiff attorneys, working on contingency arrangements generally front the costs of litigation in the hopes of a giant payday for themselves and their clients. Defense costs are borne by the physicians themselves, either directly or indirectly via insurance premiums. additionally, physicians risk license restrictions, damage to their professional reputation and even the potential for loss of livelihood from an adverse verdict.



The past few years have seen sharp surges in insurance rates driven partly by bigger frequency of legal proceeding, larger awards and/or exaggerated defense prices. the typical payout, further because the variety of cases with verdicts extraordinary $1 million has exaggerated well. Attorneys typically purpose to jurors' capabilities to elucidate sudden verdicts.

Juries in the U.S. are selected from the general population pool. although physicians are included in potential jury pools, they're generally eliminated in medical malpractice cases during the process of jury selection known as voidere. sometimes other medical professionals are chosen to sit down on juries involving medical negligence. However, more often jurors have very little or no medical background. The argument has been made that medical malpractice cases are too technically complex for the average layperson to totally grasp within the brief timetable of a trial. A successful outcome is commonly linked to the attorney's ability to effectively convey his point of view.

Attorneys for every side try to produce the greatest advantage for their clients by using variety of legal tools at their disposal. The attorneys argue the case for, or against, the physician's negligence using traditional evidence like medical records, witness testimony and medical expert opinions. At trial, medical illustrations and design are often utilized to clarify or emphasize a point to the jury. we've incorporated the use of computer graphics to create enhanced medical illustrations.

Medical Animations: What are they?

Illustrations presented at trial have traditionally been static diagrams or sketches presented to sharpen a visual image for the jury. Medical illustrations is also used to demonstrate anatomy or physical pathways to assist explain pathological circumstances. Surgical procedures can be illustrated using diagrams from textbooks or journals. computer technology and advanced software system applications have allowed us to require medical illustrations to the next level.

Plastic surgery and dermatology are very visual specialties. often results are in extremely visible areas for the whole world to see. in addition, these procedures are generally photographed by the physician. The photo-documentation incorporated into these procedures creates a unique opportunity for useful medical illustration at trial.

In cases of alleged medical negligence, information is gathered from these photographs, as well as medical records, operative reports, sworn testimony, expert medical examination, and journal or text references. in order to defend against acceptability challenges at trial, the information is totally customized to the plaintiff's circumstances. the information is loaded onto the pc and using advanced software system is enhanced into a dynamic medical animation.

The Animation Team

The process is coordinated by the attorney, the expert physician and also the pc graphic artist. The attorney determines the goals to be emphasized by the animation. These goals may be to explain the steps and decision points concerned in a particular surgery or maybe how a revision procedure might mitigate potential damages.

The lay public often tends to minimize plastic surgery procedures. Despite complex anatomy and surgical physiology, aesthetic procedures are often relegated to simplistic terms such as a "boob job" or a "nose job". Ironically, these procedures are often difficult to conceptualize, even by other physicians. They need a keen sense of spacial relationships and topography.

Attorneys often feel that educated jurors are more likely to empathize with their client. The medical animation provides the lay person a unique view into a customized operation. Another area wherever the animations are utilized is to fill in gaps of previous surgery or proposed corrections where photographs may not be obtainable. A projected surgical correction may significantly impact the damages claimed by a plaintiff.

The expert physician may be a critical component of the team. The physician must interface between the goals of the attorneys and the ability of the graphic artist. it's up to the expert physician to incorporate all of the offered facts and accurately synthesize the information into a logical educational sequence.

The computer graphic artist is given the great responsibility of creating the proof come to life. the process is similar to creation of a cartoon. using the available photographs, information and diagrams, the artist undertakes a painstaking, frame-by-frame assembly of the animation. Intervening movement is added by using pc generated images. the process involves an active dialog among the 3 team members until the final product is created.

Conclusion

Medical animations are a brand new tool that can be utilized by physicians and medical malpractice attorneys. they have been used with success both at trial and at mediation proceedings. Current use of medical illustrations is helpful but only static in nature. simple verbal descriptions are inadequate for aesthetic cases.