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Topic · Pharmacy

Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues

Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues is a research topic within Pharmacy. Science Explorer counts 36k research works in it since 1950. 10.1% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the impact of medical malpractice on the healthcare system, including topics such as malpractice risk, defensive medicine, patient complaints, tort reform, physician liability, healthcare quality, medicolegal analysis, clinical guidelines, physician behavior, and litigation outcomes.

  • Malpractice Risk
  • Defensive Medicine
  • Patient Complaints
  • Tort Reform
  • Physician Liability
  • Healthcare Quality
  • Medicolegal Analysis
  • Clinical Guidelines
  • Physician Behavior
  • Litigation Outcomes
Research works
36k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.7k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.1%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-2%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
34% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

Which countries lead Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues research?

By volume, the United States and Brazil publish the most (1.3k and 675 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.3k works
  2. 2 Brazil 675 works
  3. 3 United Kingdom 580 works
  4. 4 India 273 works
  5. 5 Türkiye 237 works
  6. 6 Indonesia 227 works
  7. 7 Spain 177 works
  8. 8 Australia 158 works
  9. 9 Canada 146 works
  10. 10 China 122 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 33.9%Brazil: 17.2%United Kingdom: 14.8%India: 7.0%6 others listed: 27.2%34%largest
United States1,331 · 33.9%Brazil675 · 17.2%United Kingdom580 · 14.8%India273 · 7.0%6 others listed1,066 · 27.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues research?

By volume in 2022-now, University of Birmingham publishes the most Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues research, followed by Harvard University and BMJ Group (United Kingdom).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 University of BirminghamUnited Kingdom 62 works
  2. 2 Harvard UniversityUnited States 52 works
  3. 3 BMJ Group (United Kingdom) 31 works
  4. 4 Universidade de São PauloBrazil 25 works
  5. 5 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 25 works
  6. 6 University of TorontoCanada 23 works
  7. 7 Yale UniversityUnited States 23 works
  8. 8 University of MichiganUnited States 21 works
  9. 9 Mayo ClinicUnited States 19 works
  10. 10 Sağlık Bilimleri ÜniversitesiTürkiye 18 works

Who are the leading researchers in Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues include Cyrus Cooper, John P. A. Ioannidis and Gordon Henry Guyatt.

  1. 1 Cyrus Cooper United Kingdom 342k citations
  2. 2 John P. A. Ioannidis United States 317k citations
  3. 3 Gordon Henry Guyatt Canada 315k citations
  4. 4 Peter Christian Gøtzsche Denmark 292k citations
  5. 5 Jeremy Grimshaw Canada 281k citations
  6. 6 Ted R. Miller United States 279k citations
  7. 7 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations
  8. 8 Jean‐Louis Vincent Belgium 262k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues?

The most cited paper in Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues is "A Surgical Safety Checklist to Reduce Morbidity and Mortality in a Global Population" (Alex Bernard Haynes, Thomas G. Weiser, William R. Berry et al., 2009), with 5,713 citations. Next come "Incidence of Adverse Events and Negligence in Hospitalized Patients" (4,679) and "The Nature of Adverse Events in Hospitalized Patients" (3,757).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 A Surgical Safety Checklist to Reduce Morbidity and Mortality in a Global Population Alex Bernard Haynes, Thomas G. Weiser, William R. Berry et al. · New England Journal of Medicine Open access 14 Jan 2009 5,713
2 Incidence of Adverse Events and Negligence in Hospitalized Patients Troyen A. Brennan, Lucian L. Leape, Nan M. Laird et al. · New England Journal of Medicine Open access 7 Feb 1991 4,679
3 The Nature of Adverse Events in Hospitalized Patients Lucian L. Leape, Troyen A. Brennan, Nan M. Laird et al. · New England Journal of Medicine 7 Feb 1991 3,757
4 Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the US Martin A. Makary, Michael G. Daniel · BMJ 3 May 2016 3,287
5 Four Models of the Physician-Patient Relationship Ezekiel J. Emanuel · JAMA 22 Apr 1992 2,459
All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues research done?

The largest centres of Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues research in 2022-now are London (United Kingdom), São Paulo (Brazil), Istanbul (Türkiye) and Boston (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in London and Birmingham.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 LondonUnited Kingdom 140 works
  2. 2 São PauloBrazil 107 works
  3. 3 IstanbulTürkiye 68 works
  4. 4 BostonUnited States 68 works
  5. 5 New YorkUnited States 68 works
  6. 6 Rio de JaneiroBrazil 67 works
  7. 7 BirminghamUnited Kingdom 66 works
  8. 8 MoscowRussia 50 works
  9. 9 Washington D.C.United States 49 works
  10. 10 PhiladelphiaUnited States 47 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. London32.0 works35×
  2. BirminghamGB · 65.6 works11×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues than the world average.

See Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues on the map

Where is the best place to study Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues?

Among universities, judged by research, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University and University of Birmingham score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%10%20%30%mean 17.5%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Harvard UniversityJohns Hopkins Univer…Yale UniversityUniversity of Birmin…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Harvard UniversityUnited States 78.622.8%3.1×52 -15.4%
2Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 64.919.9%3.1×25 -11.9%
3University of BirminghamUnited Kingdom 63.51.7%19.3×62 +42.4%
4Yale UniversityUnited States 58.113.6%4.1×23 +19.1%
5University of TorontoCanada 55.914.0%2.2×23 -6.4%
6King's College LondonUnited Kingdom 55.017.4%3.8×17 +7.5%
7King Saud UniversitySaudi Arabia 51.114.8%1.8×9 +48.9%
8University of OttawaCanada 48.423.7%3.3×11 -30.7%
9Georgetown UniversityUnited States 48.026.2%4.7×11 -9.6%
10University of California, San FranciscoUnited States 47.020.9%3.0×11 -21.0%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues, country by country

Is Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 2% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2021.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.028% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues0.023% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Medical Malpractice and Liability Issues10.4% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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