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.
Protecting the public from bad actors in medicine: A policy change workshop for State Medical Boards
Washington University
Grantee Q&A
We ask Bridging Bioethics Research & Policymaking grantees about lessons learned for increasing bioethics’ impact on policymaking.
Who was the intended audience for your project?
The primary audience for our project were members and staff from state medical boards (SMBs). Our team partnered closely with Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) leadership in planning our policy implementation workshop and the pre- and post-workshop surveys.
What message did you seek to deliver and how?
The workshop focused on the importance of and need for policy reform to protect the public from instances of egregious wrongdoing by physicians by aligning policies and disciplinary action taken across SMBs. To do so, our team shared evidence- and stakeholder-informed policy recommendations and resources on investigating and adjudicating cases of wrongdoing, and provided workshop attendees with an action plan template. During the workshop, attendees were guided through these materials to create (and support adoption of) a policy implementation action plan tailored to their board-specific contexts.
How did you involve collaborators outside of bioethics research in your project?
We collaborated closely with FSMB to plan for the policy implementation workshop, which was held at its annual meeting. FSMB leadership provided feedback on workshop flow, content, and materials, and helped advertise the workshop to its membership. FSMB also recommended exemplar SMBs who have successfully implemented new policies to protect the public from harmful physicians for us to interview to inform workshop content, specifically about challenges and successes their board faced when implementing new policies.
What lessons did you learn about translating bioethics research to policymaking?
We learned that national-scale policy implementation is complex and there are unique challenges to navigating state legislation constraints while cultivating buy-in from various stakeholders. Additionally, we found that it was important to include plenty of time in the policy implementation planning process to build relationships that will foster effective engagement by members of the target audience. Investing in relationships can help you anticipate potential areas of concern among different stakeholders and be able to address these concerns proactively and effectively.