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In an amazing report in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago obstetrician Dr. Peter Rosi blames parents for the deaths of their children.  Dr. Rosi believes that 80% of complications in childbirth are psychological and that babies can be killed by their mother’s “attitudes.”  He is proud of the fact that he practices obstetrics the way it was done 50 and 100 years ago.  Dr. Rosi has been named as a defendant in at least 10 medical malpractice cases in Cook County, Illinois and was accused of negligent homicide based on his conduct during childbirth in Sitka, Alaska in 1980, a charge of which he was eventually aquitted.

If it is true that Dr. Rosi is proud to practice obstetrics the way it was practiced 50 or 100 years ago, then his patients should be concerned.  In the past 50 years obstetrics has been revolutionized by fetal heart monitoring, ultrasound, advanced genetic screening and profoundly less invasive procedures which protect maternal and fetal well-being.  Fetal and maternal morbidity and mortality have been greatly reduced throught the use of these advance medical techniques which are now commonplace.

Dr. Rosi, age 73, practices at the Homefirst Clinic with offices in Rolling Meadows, Orland Park and Naperville, Illinois.  Homefirst is led by controversial physician, Mayer Eisenstein, who advocates physician attended home birthing.  Dr. Eisenstein also claims to be able to reverse or cure children who are suffering from Autism.

A Cook County judge has recently permitted a lawsuit brought by a former University of Chicago student proceed on a medical malpractice theory that the U of C’s student medical center was negligent in not doing a “rape kit” after a student was assaulted, denying her the ability to secure criminal charges against her attacker.  The University claims that the student refused the rape kit at the time of her examination.

The victim was raped at a party while she was a student at The U of C several years ago.  She was required by her student health insurance to seek treatment at the student health clinic.  The clinic failed to offer her a rape kit and because of its absence the victim alleges that the police and state’s attorney declined to prosecute her attacker.  She also sued her attacker in civil court and allegedly settled with him for an undisclosed sum.

Websites like Angie’s List offer online reviews on all types of service providers, including doctors.  It is undeniable that the internet provides a broad forum for public discussion, good and bad, that is very powerful.  If a search engine like Google gets a hold of negative information, even if it is untrue, it is next to impossible to have that information removed from the internet.  Nevertheless, the internet has made individual consumers a powerful force in the marketplace, through the power of the keyboard and mouse.

Doctors, concerned about the adverse effect of negative online publicity, have now taken to the practice of requiring patients to sign agreements not to post online performance reviews of their physicians.  An online company owned by physicians is charging doctors $1500 to learn how to implement this strategy into their practice.

Why the Taliban-style approach to information management?  Doctors are panicked by the prosepect of litigation.  Are these Draconian attempts to stifle free speech even enforceable?  Doubtful, but still unresolved.  Luckily, we still have the something called the First Ammendment.