Abstract
The teaching of legal medicine in Australia is a relatively new phenomenon. Clinical education of health professionals has encompassed legal concepts in only a few select disciplines including psychiatry, obstetrics, and surgery. Along with the increasing need for a sound basis of such teaching, a disturbing trend toward “defensive medicine” has emerged. These dual imperatives have culminated in the formation of dedicated courses in legal medicine for undergraduate students by a select few universities. Alongside this a professional interdisciplinary college, the Australian College of Legal Medicine was formed to address the above deficit in teaching at a postgraduate level. The college has run several successful programs including Basic and Expert Law Intensives across Australasia. Given the ever-increasing relevance of law in medicine, such courses are becoming increasingly relevant and likely to be mandatory teaching for all health practitioners in years to come.
Dedicated to the memory of Dr. Karin Margolius
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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Blackham, R.E. (2013). Teaching Medical Law: The Genesis and Directions of Legal Medicine in Australia. In: Beran, R. (eds) Legal and Forensic Medicine. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32338-6_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-32338-6_6
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-32337-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-32338-6
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