Disciplining Practitioners for Off-Duty and/or COVID Misinformation Conduct

As part of a regulator's mandate is to maintain the public's trust and confidence in the profession, regulators are faced with the challenge of how to govern practitioners' off-duty conduct. A particularly timely and critical question is whether regulators can and should discipline practitioners for off-duty (or on-duty) conduct that results in the spread of misinformation or disinformation about the COVID-19 public health crisis. This webinar will address the legal perspective of disciplining off-duty conduct, a statement by the Federation of State Medical Boards about disciplining physicians who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation, and some specific case examples where practitioners have been disciplined for conduct that poses a risk to patients and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Originally presented: October 2021