The role of medico-legal reviews in medical research.

Serial malpractice reviews offer an opportunity for the study of the effects of various practice patterns. In the specialty of obstetrics, the usefulness of this approach has been demonstrated repeatedly: (a) Much of the data indicating that bromocriptine, when given postpartum for milk suppression, has life endangering propensities have derived from medico-legal reviews. (b) Important new information about factors predisposing to or associated with neonatal brachial plexus injuries have emerged from critical analysis of malpractice claims. There is reason to anticipate that objective evaluation of the background of other prenatal birth injuries can provide more useful clinical information than traditional randomized prospective studies.