Defensive medicine
Defensive medicine: Medical practices designed to avert the future possibility of malpractice suits. In defensive medicine, responses are undertaken primarily to avoid liability rather than to benefit the patient. Doctors may order tests, procedures, or visits, or avoid high-risk patients or procedures primarily (but not necessarily solely) to reduce their exposure to malpractice liability. Defensive medicine is one of the least desirable effects of the rise in medical litigation. Defensive medicine increases the cost of health care and may expose patients to unnecessary risks.
Read Also:
- Defibrillation
Defibrillation: The use of a carefully controlled electric shock, administered either through a device on the exterior of the chest wall or directly to the exposed heart muscle, to normalize the rhythm of the heart or restart it.
- Defibrillator
Defibrillator: A device that corrects an abnormal heart rhythm by delivering electrical shocks to restore a normal heartbeat.
- Defibrillator storm
Defibrillator storm: A condition that arises when a defibrillator implanted in the chest to right an arrhythmia (an abnormal heart rhythm) fires off frequently –sometimes several times a day or even more often — each time with a jolt like a boxer’s punch to the chest, because of far advanced heart disease. Defibrillator storm is […]
- Defibrillator, automated external
Defibrillator, automated external: See: Automated external defibrillator.
- Defibrillator, implantable cardiac
Defibrillator, implantable cardiac: A device that is designed to be put in the body to recognize certain types of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) and correct them by delivering precisely calibrated and timed electrical shocks to restore a normal heartbeat. Defibrillators continuously monitor the heart rhythm in order to detect overly rapid life-threatening arrhythmias, such as […]