Protecting the public from bad actors in medicine: A policy change workshop for State Medical Boards

There is nearly eight-fold variation across the 70 State Medical Boards (SMBs) in the U.S. in disciplinary actions taken against physicians who engage in egregious wrongdoing (e.g., sexually abusing patients, performing unnecessary invasive procedures, improperly prescribing controlled substances). Prof. McIntosh’s team’s prior work resulted in 56 expert-informed consensus-based recommendations for SMBs to more effectively and uniformly protect the public. SMBs are well-positioned to affect board policy change, but intentional, dedicated planning is needed to successfully implement recommendations by transforming board policies. The team will partner with the Federation of State Medical Boards and Administrators in Medicine to host an intensive and practical workshop for SMB members and staff to develop individual board action plans for implementing recommendations into board policy. This workshop will aim to support more effective and uniform policy adoption across SMBs to better protect the public from harmful physician conduct.