sham peer review


sham peer review

A term of art referring to the abuse of a medical peer review to attack a doctor for personal or other non-medical reasons. Sham peer reviews may be triggered by a doctor who flags unsafe conditions in a hospital or reports suboptimal care being provided by a senior colleague. Such reviews typically result in a doctor being labelled as disruptive or having compromised patient quality, leading to their being reported to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which may effectively end his or her career.