Stein, Mitchell & Mezines lawyers have compiled these research tips for clients and prospective clients who have an issue in Medical Malpractice. These web sites represent only the first phase of the type of intensive research and investigation typically done by our lawyers and their assistants in working on our clients' cases.

• Standards of medical practice:
  A key issue in medical malpractice cases is whether the health care provider met accepted standards in his or her treatment of the patient. The National Guideline Clearinghouse is a government-sponsored research tool that allows one to search for the medical care guidelines and standards of care that are specific to a variety of diseases, conditions and treatments. Patients can search for guidelines by disease, type of treatment, or medical organization.

• Medical Literature Online:
  The National Institute of Health's PubMed is a huge, easy to use database of information on nearly all of the medical journal articles written in the past 40 years. Users can search by keyword, author, and journal title. Most of the articles found provide free summaries of their content, and some link to free online versions of the full article.

• Medicare Patients Have Right to Force Government to Make Quality of Care Investigations and to Learn Results:
  Click on the link above to learn more about your rights as a Medicare patient and what you can do to uphold your quality of care.

• Research a Physician:
  There are many ways to get information about a physician, including whether he or she has been subject to previous lawsuits or disciplinary actions for medical malpractice.
  • AMA Doctor-Finder: The American Medical Association's Doctor-Finder lists background information including doctors' specialties, education, and board certification.
  • HealthGrades.com: HealthGrades.com, Inc., offers extensive report cards on doctors, hospitals, health plans and nursing homes nationwide (the reports cost between $3-7). State and national disciplinary actions are listed along with other background information.
  • Licensing Boards: The Administrators in Medicine site provides searches of Maryland's and Virginia's state government licensing board information on specific doctors. This includes licensing background, malpractice, criminal conviction and disciplinary information for physicians and other health care providers.
  • Questionable Doctors: Public Citizen's Questionable Doctors database allows you to search for disciplinary action records for doctors in 42 states, including Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The search is free, though the reports are sold at the price of $30 for 10 reports.
  • Questionable Therapies: Quackwatch, run by Dr. Stephen Barrett, helps patients examine and debunk questionable medical therapies from acupuncture to wild yam cream.