“Your Health Care May Kill You,” read James G. Anderson’s scientific publication headline on the National Library of Medicine. According to him, medical errors may lead to death faster than an illness could harm you.
This is due to recent studies that show that medical errors result in as many as 251,000 deaths in the US each year. Hence, making it the third leading cause of death in the country. This number is staggeringly higher than the fatalities recorded in other developed countries like Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and Germany.
As rampant as medical malpractice is in the US today, very few medical malpractice cases grace the court’s steps. According to research, only 2% of patients who experience medical negligence ever file a case to seek compensation. Fewer people are ever compensated for their harm, deteriorating health, or suffering.
In line with this, medical malpractice is becoming rampant. The government and professional medical bodies are making plans on how to address it and find a lasting solution. The judiciary also jumps into the process by scrutinizing every case closely. Hence, justly delivering judgment to whom it is due.
One way a litigant can help the court in medical malpractice cases is to tilt towards giving evidence through demonstrative means. One example of demonstrative evidence which serves as a power-packed combo with medical malpractice cases is medical malpractice trial animation.
What is Medical Malpractice Trial Animation?
Medical malpractice trial animation is a computer-generated video that gives jurors a better understanding of a case’s pertinent problems.
Medical malpractice cases acquire information from images, medical records, surgical reports, sworn testimony, and expert medical assessment. The data is imported onto the computer and refined into a dynamic medical animation utilizing cutting-edge technologies.
Using medical animations for trial play a massive role in assisting jurors in understanding the medical aspects of the case. It also prevents the attorney from losing the jury with boring medical lingo.
In the United States, jurors are chosen from the general population. Despite being included in potential jury pools, doctors are routinely excluded during the jury selection procedure known as voir dire.
Occasionally, juries investigating medical negligence cases will include members of other medical specialties.
But more frequently than not, the jury members lack any medical training. Thus, the technical complexity of medical malpractice matters makes it impossible for a layperson to understand them during the trial.
Medical malpractice trial animation is an excellent way to persuade jurors with clarity. Hence, appealing to their already situated preferences for visual stimulation.
What Types of Cases Requires Medical Malpractice Trial Animation?
The answer is “virtually any case that requires extensive diving into medical jargon that will have a non-medical person lost in seconds.”
Medical malpractice animation can be extremely valuable in a case involving misdiagnosis or medical diagnosis.
According to My Medical Score, roughly 12,000,000 Americans are misdiagnosed each year. John Hopkins Medicine reports that yearly, over 100,000 Americans lose their lives or become permanently disabled due to incorrect or hurried medical diagnoses that initially miss the ailments.
In a case where a condition was misdiagnosed, the result being the aggravation of the condition, medical malpractice trial animation can play a significant role. Usually, in cases like this, the defendant may claim that the diagnosis had nothing to do with the aggravation of the illness. This is where medical malpractice trial animation comes in.
The animation can show the initial state the plaintiff was in before coming in for the diagnosis. Furthermore, it can show how far the condition has worsened because the necessary treatment was not commenced. Also, the wrong diagnosis which caused the wrong treatment, leading to a much more worrisome complication can be illustrated. For instance, an animation can be used to show how an untreated spinal infection leads to an abscess.
The animation may also show that if the doctor had diagnosed the condition earlier, the surgery, which resulted in grim complications, would have been safer.
Medical Trial Animation Explaining Surgical Procedure
Similarly, a medical trial exhibit may be used to explain a surgery procedure to the jury.
Most of the time, seeing is believing. When the jurors see the procedure, they can also quantify the pain and suffering the plaintiff may have gone through while undergoing a procedure and how awful it would be if the surgeon made a dire mistake.
Examples of medical procedures that can be exhibited include minimally invasive surgeries like laminectomy, abdominal surgeries, and other open surgeries such as shoulder and knee replacement surgery.
Medical Malpractice Trial Animation Explaining Medication Errors
What about medication errors?
We all know that an underdose, overdose, or the mere usage of a medication that was not needed by the body can pose tremendous harm to the body. Another statistic from My Medical Score estimated that 7,000 to 9,000 patients die yearly from medication errors.
Just like in the case of wrongful diagnoses that led to wrongful treatments, the toxic effect of the medication error can be portrayed using medical trial animation. It would show how the medication wreaked havoc on the patient’s body.
Conclusion
Medical malpractice trial animation is widely accepted in the courtroom as long as admissibility rules are followed and accuracy is guaranteed.
Ultimately, it is vital that when there’s a need for the use of medical animation in court, an attorney versed in the area of medical malpractice and a formidable medical malpractice trial animation company be brought on board to ensure accuracy and teamwork to achieve a common goal.
At Fox-AE, our team of medical animators is committed to working on different cases with their unique requirements to ensure that we create medical case animations that clearly illustrate expert opinions and break down medical lingo and procedures into understandable visuals.
