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Medicolegal Causation Investigation of Bacterial Endocarditis Associated with an Oral Surgery Practice Using the INFERENCE Approach

Investigating causation is a primary goal in forensic/legal medicine, aiming to establish the connection between an unlawful/negligent act and an adverse outcome. In malpractice litigation involving a healthcare-associated infection due to a failure of infection prevention and control practices, the...

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Autores principales: Meilia, Putri Dianita Ika, Zeegers, Maurice P., , Herkutanto, Freeman, Michael D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8305199/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34299979
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147530
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author Meilia, Putri Dianita Ika
Zeegers, Maurice P.
, Herkutanto
Freeman, Michael D.
author_facet Meilia, Putri Dianita Ika
Zeegers, Maurice P.
, Herkutanto
Freeman, Michael D.
author_sort Meilia, Putri Dianita Ika
collection PubMed
description Investigating causation is a primary goal in forensic/legal medicine, aiming to establish the connection between an unlawful/negligent act and an adverse outcome. In malpractice litigation involving a healthcare-associated infection due to a failure of infection prevention and control practices, the medicolegal causal analysis needs to quantify the individual causal probabilities to meet the evidentiary requirements of the court. In this paper, we present the investigation of the most probable cause of bacterial endocarditis in a patient who underwent an invasive procedure at a dental/oral surgical practice where an outbreak of bacterial endocarditis had already been identified by the state Department of Health. We assessed the probability that the patient’s endocarditis was part of the outbreak versus that it was an unrelated sporadic infection using the INFERENCE (Integration of Forensic Epidemiology and the Rigorous Evaluation of Causation Elements) approach to medicolegal causation analysis. This paper describes the step-by-step application of the INFERENCE approach to demonstrate its utility in quantifying the probability of causation. The use of INFERENCE provides the court with an evidence-based, transparent, and reliable guide to determine liability, causation, and damages.
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spelling pubmed-83051992021-07-25 Medicolegal Causation Investigation of Bacterial Endocarditis Associated with an Oral Surgery Practice Using the INFERENCE Approach Meilia, Putri Dianita Ika Zeegers, Maurice P. , Herkutanto Freeman, Michael D. Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Investigating causation is a primary goal in forensic/legal medicine, aiming to establish the connection between an unlawful/negligent act and an adverse outcome. In malpractice litigation involving a healthcare-associated infection due to a failure of infection prevention and control practices, the medicolegal causal analysis needs to quantify the individual causal probabilities to meet the evidentiary requirements of the court. In this paper, we present the investigation of the most probable cause of bacterial endocarditis in a patient who underwent an invasive procedure at a dental/oral surgical practice where an outbreak of bacterial endocarditis had already been identified by the state Department of Health. We assessed the probability that the patient’s endocarditis was part of the outbreak versus that it was an unrelated sporadic infection using the INFERENCE (Integration of Forensic Epidemiology and the Rigorous Evaluation of Causation Elements) approach to medicolegal causation analysis. This paper describes the step-by-step application of the INFERENCE approach to demonstrate its utility in quantifying the probability of causation. The use of INFERENCE provides the court with an evidence-based, transparent, and reliable guide to determine liability, causation, and damages. MDPI 2021-07-15 /pmc/articles/PMC8305199/ /pubmed/34299979 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147530 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Meilia, Putri Dianita Ika
Zeegers, Maurice P.
, Herkutanto
Freeman, Michael D.
Medicolegal Causation Investigation of Bacterial Endocarditis Associated with an Oral Surgery Practice Using the INFERENCE Approach
title Medicolegal Causation Investigation of Bacterial Endocarditis Associated with an Oral Surgery Practice Using the INFERENCE Approach
title_full Medicolegal Causation Investigation of Bacterial Endocarditis Associated with an Oral Surgery Practice Using the INFERENCE Approach
title_fullStr Medicolegal Causation Investigation of Bacterial Endocarditis Associated with an Oral Surgery Practice Using the INFERENCE Approach
title_full_unstemmed Medicolegal Causation Investigation of Bacterial Endocarditis Associated with an Oral Surgery Practice Using the INFERENCE Approach
title_short Medicolegal Causation Investigation of Bacterial Endocarditis Associated with an Oral Surgery Practice Using the INFERENCE Approach
title_sort medicolegal causation investigation of bacterial endocarditis associated with an oral surgery practice using the inference approach
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8305199/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34299979
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18147530
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