In the Public Interest - Medical Licensing and the Disciplinary Process (Broché)

How do we know when physicians practice medicine safely ? Can we trust doctors to discipline their own ? What is the proper role of experts in a democracy ? In the Public Interest raises these provocative questions, using medical licensing and discipline to advocate for a needed overhaul of how we decide public good in a society dominated by private interest groups. Ruth Horowitz traces the history of medical licensure and the mechanisms that democratic societies have developed to certify doctors to deliver critical services.
She demonstrates the complex agendas different actors bring to board deliberations, the variations in boards across the country, the unevenly distributed resources available to board members, and the difficulties nonphysician members face as they struggle to balance interests of the parties involved. In the Public Interest suggests new procedures, resource allocation, and educational initiatives to increase physician oversight.
Horowitz makes the case for regulations modeled after deliberative democracy that promise to open debates to the general public and allow public members to take a more active part in the decision-making process that affects vital community interests.