Do you need malpractice/professional liability coverage for research consulting

[Farfetched]

I assume some of you have outside consulting jobs. I encountered an opportunity to work as a contract service provider for a research project by a commercial company, involving mainly reviewing some imaging data retrospectively, such as measuring tumor sizes. Does anyone know if some sort of liability coverage I might need to purchase, since this is research and not clinical work? Any input or shared experience would be appreciated.

[VagabondMD]

Do you have a contract with the company? If they do not require, I would not pursue it. Under the circumstances, it has hard to imagine a scenario that you would be liable for retrospective review of imaging data.

I do have a consulting arrangement, a medical director for a national company, and they required me to have insurance for it. Even in my role, it is extremely unlikely that I would ever be dragged into a med mal situation.

[Farfetched]

Thank you for the response. The company does not require it, but I wanted to get a sense of what other physicians do in order to see if I need to protect myself better. I also do not see a scenario especially in a retrospective research setting, but as I have never performed outside work, too many things new to me. Thanks again,

[White.Beard.Doc]

When doing your consulting work it looks like there is no doctor patient relationship. You are not reading films to provide patient care, someone else has already done that. So there should be no risk for malpractice without a doctor patient relationship.

 

Caution though: I'm a physician, not a lawyer!

[Farfetched]

Of course. Not seeking legal advice but am looking for similar experiences and seeing what other people are doing. Your thinking is in line with what I feel. Thanks for the feedback