Uncovering Doctor Misconduct: A Call for Transparency

0:00It's April 20th. I'm Cory with the story. This is Calgary News Today, driven by AI. University of Calgary researchers are calling for more transparency from medical regulators across Canada to crack down on doctor's guilty of sexual abuse and discrimination. They built a database from news reports, court cases and regulator sites uncovering 689 victims, 585 women or girls, including at least 40 kids over 5 years old. Sexual misconduct top the list, followed by assaults, with 208 offending physicians about 0.2% of practicing docs. Many complaints aren't even listed online by the colleges that oversee doctors, making it hard to track. The study also spotted a big gap in reports of misconduct against fellow physicians, especially women, way fewer than in the US or UK, where most. Female health workers report harassment from colleagues. Researchers, both women who face gender-based harassment themselves

1:01say power imbalances in medicine make this shocking but not surprising. Patients often stay quiet, likely over 90% of cases go unreported due to needing ongoing care or not recognizing the abuse right away, even worse, discipline doctors keep offending. Despite 2019 laws pushing penalties and openness, data gaps mean we can't tell if they're working. Regulators like Alberta's College of Physicians and Surgeons post decisions online, reports stats yearly and have victim funds, claiming one of the strongest setups, to fix this, experts push for public input on harassment reports and a national registry of discipline cases. The colleges say they'll review these ideas to boost accountability without invading privacy.