Re-framing disability: portraits from the Royal College of Physicians

The RCP is hosting a free exhibition exploring historical portraits of disabled people held within our collections, taking place from 14 February to 8 July 2011. This film features27 disabled participants from across the UK who came together to discuss the historical portraits and their own identities and lives.

Sham Peer Review?

Are you familiar with the concept of a "sham peer review?" Have you lost hospital privileges? Maybe you even lost your job. Perhaps you've felt that other physicians or the hospitals were discriminating against you. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about sham peer review:

Sham peer review or malicious peer review is a name given to the abuse of a medical peer review process to attack a doctor for personal or other non-medical reasons.[1] The American Medical Association conducted an investigation of medical peer review in 2007 and concluded that while it is easy to allege misconduct, proven cases of malicious peer review are rare.[2]

Those who maintain that sham peer review is a pervasive problem suggest that the Healthcare Quality Improvement Act (HCQIA) of 1986 allows sham reviews by granting significant immunity from liability to doctors and others who participate in peer reviews. This immunity extends to investigative activities as well as to any associated peer review hearing, whether or not it leads to a disciplinary (or other) action.

1 Roland Chalifoux, Jr (2005). "So What Is a Sham Peer Review?". Medscape General Medicine 7 (4): 47. PMID 16614669. PMC 1681729. http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/515862.
2 "Inappropriate Peer Review. Report of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association."

How many physicians have disability insurance?

The other day, I was speaking with a number of physicians about disability insurance. Someone happened to ask, "how many practicing physicians have disability insurance?" The group began discussing various benefit packages and they concluded that physicians who are employed by hospitals, academic centers, and other large organizations have access to nice disability insurance options. In contrast, many physicians who are in private practice or in small groups are not given many options for disability insurance.

It seems like so many physicians are not thinking about the possibility of needing disability insurance. Perhaps we don't want to think about our own fragility. Maybe we don't want to face the chance that we will get struck with illness or get involved in a serious accident. I've known many younger physicians who are now disabled and a number of them did not have any disability insurance because they were not informed during medical school about the need for disability insurance. .

Re-framing disability: portraits from the Royal College of Physicians

Re-framing disability: portraits from the Royal College of Physicians

An exhibition exploring four centuries of hidden history with responses from disabled people today

Visit the exhibition from the 14 February–8 July 2011

Address

Royal College of Physicians
11 St Andrews Place
Regent’s Park
London
NW1 4LE

Contact us

Tel: 020 3075 1543
Email: heritage@rcplondon.ac.uk
Website: www.rcplondon.ac.uk/heritage

Visiting hours

Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm (booking advisable, groups of three or more people by appointment only). Call 020 3075 1543 or email heritage@rcplondon.ac.uk.

1 March, 11 May, 7 June: Late night opening 6pm–8pm

Including a free 30-minute guided tour of the RCP’s grade one listed building and collections at 6.30pm. BSL-interpreted tour 11 May. No booking needed.

16 April: Saturday opening 10am–2pm

Including a free tour (as above) at 11.30am. No booking needed