At the heart of medicine is the patient. That individual's care and well-being guides every healthcare provider's direction and decisions. As part of Medical Protective's initiative to closely integrate its insurance and health care expertise with efforts to reduce risk to all healthcare systems and providers, Medical Protective has expanded the number of its specialty advisory boards. A natural development for a company founded by doctors, these advisory boards offer guidance and expertise in nine different specialties/areas of practice including anesthesiology, cosmetic surgery, dentistry, emergency medicine, family medicine, general surgery, OB/GYN, OMS and orthopedics. Additional advisory boards will be added in 2013.

Each advisory board concentrates its efforts on four key goals: the prevention and reduction of risk; the improvement of patient outcomes; to have a positive impact on patient care and safety; and to place an advocate within Medical Protective dedicated to selected specialties. To reach these goals, the advisory boards meet three times a year to review both open and closed claims, review specialty-specific trends, examine new procedures, and provide feedback to dedicated liaisons from all four of Medical Protective's key functional areas: claims, risk, underwriting, and sales/marketing.

"These boards were established to make certain our insureds have an advocate that understands their specialty and the challenges unique to their practice," said Dr. Graham Billingham, Chief Medical Officer of Medical Protective. "Our 110,000-plus insureds are caring for millions of patients each year. Our century of experience, combined with the insights of these boards, will bring a meaningful, positive impact to patient safety and risk prevention."

Each advisory board consists of six physician or specialty members, including a chair. These advisory board members are carefully selected—based on rigorous and formal criteria—from a broad spectrum and cross-section of highly accomplished practitioners from across the nation, bringing to their respective advisory boards a wealth of clinical and healthcare management experience

"These advisory boards will play an integral role in narrowing practice behavior and taking the variability out of practice in high-risk medicine," Billingham added. "Medical Protective was founded by physicians, and physicians have always been an integral part of our how we operate. Healthcare delivery is changing in significant ways and very quickly, and Medical Protective is uniquely positioned to support and guide healthcare providers through these changes with insight, expertise and solutions."