MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE AND EMERGING INNOVATIVE TREATMENTS AND PROCEDURES

Abstract

As technology advances, the question of whether or not legal liability arises when a physician deviates from routine medical  practices  and  employs  an  innovative  medical  treatment  or  procedure  is  inevitable.  Using  the  doctrinal method of research, this paper examines the concept of negligence in medical practice and discusses the relevance of innovative  treatments.  It  further  discusses  the  standard  of  care  required  when  an  innovative  treatment  has  been employed by a medical practitioner. The paper finds that case laws, particularly in English courts, have settled the requirements to be fulfilled in proving a case of medical negligence involving innovative treatments, which are that: there is a usual and normal practice; the  defendant has not adopted that practice and; the  course  the  professional had adopted is one which no professional person of ordinary skill would have taken if he/she had been acting with ordinary  care.  However,  the  standard  of  care  for  innovative  treatments  remains  unclear  in  some  countries  like Nigeria  and  America.The  main  recommendations  are  the  filling  of  the  lacuna  in  Nigerian  laws  regarding  the standard  of  care  for  innovative  treatments  through  adequate  legislation  by  adopting  a  liberal  interpretation  of  the malpractice standard of care to encourage medical innovation.