1 in 3 cardiologists have been sued, though they often win when it happens
One in three cardiologists have been sued over the course of their career, according to a new analysis from the American Medical Association (AMA).
Overall, 31.2% of U.S. physicians say they have been sued. The exact figure for cardiologists is 32.1%.
Obstetricians/gynecologists face the highest risk—62.4%—followed by general surgeons (59.3%), other surgeons (55.5%) and orthopedic surgeons (47.2%). Allergists/immunologists (7%) and hematologists/oncologists (8%) face the lowest risk of being the subject of a lawsuit.
The AMA report relied on survey respondents from U.S. physicians who do not work for the federal government. Data was gathered from surveys completed in 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022, adding up to a total of 14,000 different responses.
Economist José R. Guardado, PhD, the report’s author, noted that his focus was not which medical specialties make the most errors—just which ones were associated with the most liability claims.
“Getting sued is not necessarily indicative of medical error,” Guardado wrote. “Consider that 65% of claims that closed between 2016 and 2018 were dropped, dismissed or withdrawn, and out of the 6% of claims that were decided by a trial verdict, 89% were won by the defendant.”
Guardado noted that male physicians are more likely to be the subject of a lawsuit than female physicians.
“Notably, this gender differential grew over time,” he wrote. “In the 2016-2018 period, 2.8% of men were sued in the previous year, compared to 1.6% of women. There was no change over time for men in 2020-2022, but the likelihood that women received a claim fell to 0.9%.”
Also, as one might expect, younger physicians are less likely to have been sued than older physicians. This was the case for every specialty included in the report.
The full report is available, as a PDF, on the AMA website.
Back in 2021, a report from Medscape concluded that 58% of cardiologist have been named in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.