The Southeastern Medical Legal Symposium is a unique educational program bringing together stakeholders in the various professions involved in litigated medical claims. In its fourth year, we are proud to again be sponsored by the American College of Legal Medicine [ACLM]. Invitees include health care professionals (e.g., physicians, medical directors, psychologists, and nurse case managers), attorneys, dual degreed MD/PhD/DDS/DPM-JD’s, risk managers, claims managers, adjusters, judges, and others.

If you appreciate stimulating academic exercise and an amazing networking opportunity, please attend. NOTE: Due to the evolving nature of the program, and speakers being added, the specifics of sessions are subject to change without notice. We hope only to improve your learning experience. 

OVERVIEW: Whenever medical claims are being litigated, the foundation and later success of the case often comes down to the reliability and credibility of the medical experts rendering opinions. On Monday, the 2017 SE Medical Legal Symposium General Session - entitled “Physicians Reviewing Physicians” - is meant to leave participants with a far greater breadth and depth in their ability to select and credential experts for their cases, and then communicate with them so as to achieve the best result for their client. Especially in those cases, when the most appropriate medical specialty, may not necessarily be the one which seems most apparent or intuitive.  

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Attendees will also gain valuable insight into the various medical review processes from insiders. Topics covered will include the role of medical criteria, clinical guidelines, evidence based medicine and best practices - and how they must be incorporated into the written opinion.  Another stated objective is to learn at what stage of the proceedings the different processes such as Utilization Review, pre-certification, peer review and face to face IME are best used and most cost efficient. Learn when it makes sense to organize the file for the medical expert and when is it just added expense.  

Designed by esteemed faculty from the American College of Legal Medicine to meet the growing CME and CLE state requirements for physicians and attorneys a three hour substance abuse program - Law, Medicine and the Opioid Epidemic - has received rave reviews from attendees when presented in the past. It may be the best such program in all of Georgia this year, and it includes an Update from the CDC on their Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain . 

On the second day of the Symposium, which will take place in the morning on Tuesday, there are consecutive interactive workshops offered addressing two problematic areas in litigated medical claims. The first one entitled “The Bad, Incompetent or Unethical Medical Expert in a Litigated Medical Claim - What to Do & When to Do It?” will cover strategies for how to best handle this issue, which comes up more often than might be expected.  This will be followed by another – “The Written Medical Report for the Legal Setting: Where Medicine & the Law Collide”. It will cover essential topics such as how to make the request and frame questions for the medical expert; preparation of the file for the expert review or IME; what makes for an effective medical report (for the writers) and how to interpret it (for the readers). Finally, we will address the balance between the need for clarification/correction and the hazards of seeking one out.