Abstract
Ideally, the fact that diagnosis of OLD involves the legal profession should not affect a physician's objectivity or clinical approach. Physicians have an obligation to help assure that deserving patients receive compensation, and that claimants without a compensable occupational illness are not unjustly rewarded. However, the attorney's need to prove a diagnosis "with medical certainty," and the defendant's needs to refute that diagnosis with equal certainty, often skew what would otherwise be a straightforward diagnostic process. Resulting pitfalls in diagnosis can, in the end, trap the physician advocate and the side he is trying to help.
Recommended Citation
Lawrence Martin, Pitfalls in Diagnosis of Occupational Lung Disease for Purposes of Compensation - One Physician's Perspective, 13 J.L. & Health 49 (1998-1999)