Study on physician discipline for misinformation
A study in JAMA Network Open examined medical board disciplinary actions across five populous U.S. states (California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas), finding that few physicians face discipline for spreading medical misinformation. While common reasons for discipline included practitioner negligence and record-keeping issues, only 0.1% of cases involved misinformation to the public. Sanctions for misinformation were generally light, such as probation or reprimands, and varied by state. The study concluded, “Moreover, the study results have serious policy implications, suggesting that the professional licensure system under current patient-centered frameworks may be institutionally ill-suited to combat the diffuse, intractable, and largely public health-related harms arising from physician-spread misinformation.”