Accredited Psychiatry and Medicine
Medical and Psychiatric Experts
How is an Objective Medical/Psychiatric Opinion Formed?
A medical expert is a physician who has the requisite clinical experience
and academic achievement to form an objective medical opinion to a reasonable
degree of medical certainty. A forensic
psychiatrist is a physician who integrates clinical experience, knowledge
of medicine, mental health, and the neurosciences to form an independent,
objective opinion. Relevant data are gathered and analyzed as part of
a process of alternative hypothesis testing to formulate an expert medical/psychiatric
opinion. This expert opinion can be effectively communicated by written
report, deposition, or courtroom testimony. Dr. Bursztajn has extensive expert experience consulting nationally both on-site and virtually such as through secure videolink enabled psychiatric examinations and testimony. The applications of forensic
psychiatry are widespread in settings ranging from health
care and the workplace to criminal
justice and public safety questions. Common areas of expertise are
briefly described below and categorized in the menu on the left. For more details including case-specific attorney references, confidentially call (617-492-8366) or e-mail our
office directly.
Expert Multispecialty Team Analysis
Dr. Bursztajn continues to have an active clinical
practice and consults as a forensic psychiatric expert and teaches nationally
both as an individual and as a distinguished multispecialty team.
He has had a long standing special interest in medical and psychiatric
diagnosis. His publications analyzing clinical and forensic neuropsychiatric
diagnosis and misdiagnosis range from the highly acclaimed book Medical
Choices, Medical Chances through numerous peer reviewed publications to chapters in current standard textbooks of medicine, forensic psychiatry and mental health.
Review and analysis, consultation, neuropsychiatric examinations and expert opinion formulation in
medical and mental health malpractice, informed consent, product liability,
risk management and testamentary capacity cases are a longstanding area
of special interest. Other areas of special interest include psychiatric
diagnosis, suicide prevention, sexual boundary violation claim evaluations,
boundary training, detection of malingering, pain impairment evaluations,
custody, testamentary capacity, medication management standards, managed
health care, psychiatric and forensic neuropsychiatric autopsies, diminished
capacity, death penalty mitigation, and employment related issues such
as ADA, disability, workers' compensation, and sexual harassment. Responses
to initial telephone or e-mail inquiries regarding case merit and expert
assistance are at no cost, as well as referrals to colleagues where a
multispecialty expert team seems best.
Who Can Benefit?
A forensic psychiatrist/medical expert can assist individuals and institutions,
plaintiffs and defendants, attorneys, federal agencies, and the courts
to evaluate claims ranging from medical and mental health malpractice
to medical product liability, disability, sexual harassment and diminished
capacity. Organizations can also benefit from an expert consultation
evaluating the validity and response strategy to employment, supervisory
responsibility, or maintenance of health care standards claims. Public
safety and criminal justice professionals can also find forensic psychiatric
expert consultation effective in areas ranging from analyzing and preventing
threats to security to capacity to form specific criminal intent.
Some Case Examples:
- Case: In Re: Estate of Herbert Joel Zieben, Deceased. The forensic neuropsychiatric evaluation of testamentary capacity and undue influence.
- Case: [Plaintiff]
v. New York City Transit Authority, et al. Dr.
Bursztajn’s testimony regarding a plaintiff’s malingering
and misattribution debunks neuroimaging gimmickry in a post-concussive
disorder claim.
- Case: [Plaintiff]
v. United States of America. Dr. Bursztajn's evaluation
of a plaintiff claiming traumatic brain injury indicates
a factitious disorder, also known as Munchausen syndrome.
- Case: Carvajal
v. Mihalek, et al. Dr. Bursztajn's reference to
an antisocial history in the course of his examination, opinion,
and testimony was affirmed on appeal by a panel which included
one of the better senior judge writers in the federal judiciary, Guido
Calabrese, whose book, Tragic
Choices deals with many of the issues of Dr. Bursztajn's
book Medical Choices, Medical
Chances in a legal context.
- Case: Silverstein v. U.S. Dr. Bursztajn's
review of the plaintiff's, Thomas Silverstein, mental state through
review of medical and case records and a forensic psychiatric interview
of the plaintiff lead to his opinion: "...I do not find evidence
of damage to Mr. Silverstein's mental health resulting from the conditions
of confinement." This opinion led to the court's granting the
Bureau of Prison's Motion for Summary Judgment dismissing the case
as reported by the Denver
Post.
- Case: State of New York v. Nixzaliz Santiago.
(2008) Dr. Bursztajn was retained by the prosecution for examination
of defendant. Articles on
the verdict in
the New York Times.
- Case: US
v. Jane Doe. Mental Illness Creates Eligibility
for a Lower Sentence. Dr. Bursztajn testifies in Federal
Court that defendant suffered from diminished capacity and
complex PTSD (vs. simple PTSD) which often presents itself
in compulsive self-destructive behavior. (January 2004).
- Case: Vick
v. Northrop Grumman. Dr. Bursztajn was retained by the defense for a neuropsychiatric autopsy
of a suicide in the context of a workers compensation case.
- Case: Doe v. Roe Hospital. Dr. Bursztajn's expert evaluation helps to resolve a claim that clinical and institutional malpractice caused a patient's suicide.
- Case: deVries,
et al. vs Secaucus Fire Department, et al.. A
landmark civil rights verdict in a case alleging a town's
politicians' failure to protect a gay couple who were harassed
and eventually driven out of their home next to a fire station
in Secaucus. Dr. Bursztajn served as the plaintiffs' attorneys'
retained testifying expert regarding causation, the nature
and extent of the emotional injuries and standards for reliability
and validity for an forensic psychiatric Independent Medical
Examination.
Some Examples of Expertise:
A physician who is an expert in psychiatry, primary medical care, medical
causation, and clinical ethics can analyze the informed consent process
and primary medical care decision making and formulate an expert opinion
applicable to specific questions, such as whether the standard of primary
medical and mental health care for medical decision making and informed
consent has been met by the treating physician, the staff, and the health
care organization.
Dr. Bursztajn has been retained by clinicians and institutions as an
expert for peer review and to consult to the courts and plaintiff's and
defense attorneys on questions such as:
- Were appropriate professional relationships boundaries observed?
- Was an appropriate informed consent process implemented?
- Were appropriate steps taken to prevent a tragic outcome such as
suicide or a medication-related death or injury?
- Was an appropriate referral made?
- Were appropriate steps taken subsequently to mitigate the consequences
of a treatment-related death or injury?
- What is the extent of impairment, pain, suffering, changed prognosis,
need for treatment, and loss of consortium that can be validly attributed
or is being misattributed causally?
In the workplace, the forensic psychiatrist may be asked to consider
whether a claimed disability (e.g., a chronic general illness, such as
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, a chronic pain syndrome, such as Fibromyalgia,
or a mental disorder, such as Depression, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is valid and work stress-related.
Some other frequently asked employment-related examination questions
are:
- Is a claimed impairment subject to the ADA mandate for accommodation?
- What is the appropriate organizational response to a sexual harassment
claim?
- What is the validity and extent of sexual or racial harassment-related
damage claims, such as emotional injury or Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder?
Frequently asked questions range from evaluation of defendants for determining
mitigating and treatable neuropsychiatric disorders to advising public
safety and law enforcement officers. Dr. Bursztajn is frequently chosen
as a peer reviewer by journals in medicine and psychiatry, ranging from
the Journal of the American Medical Association to the American Journal
of Psychiatry. Among his forensic psychiatric contributions you can read
his review of the book "Are
You There Alone?" The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates,
by Suzanne O’Malley. New York, Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Areas of special interest include:
- Competency to confess and false confessions
- Competency to stand trial and post-Sell medication
issues
- Neuropsychiatric and medication-related impairments diminishing
capacity and influencing mens
rea
- Mitigating factors and forensic neuropsychiatric evaluation as an
aid to sentencing, ranging from "white collar" to death
penalty fact patterns
- Identification of malingering and its mimics
Product liability cases often raise issues of informed consent processes,
assumption of risk, professional and organizational ethics, complex neuropsychiatric
causation of claimed injuries, and the validity and reliability of expert
methodology and opinion formulation. There can also be a question of
distinguishing medical product liability from the physician's or patient's
knowing assumption of risk. Here the level of informed consent available
may be crucial.
Dr. Bursztajn consults and teaches physicians, including psychiatrists,
regarding the fundamentals of informed consent processes. "Informed
Consent in Neuropsychosocialpharmacology," Psychiatric
Times, 2005; 22(13):59-63. His longstanding interest in the ethical
foundations of pharmaceutical and medical device research led to his
serving on the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) under
contract to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in developing standards
for the accreditation of programs for the protection of human subjects.
These standards served as a basis for field testing and adoption nationally
by the Institute of Medicine.
Areas of special interest include:
- Protection of human research subjects and patient and public safety
- Informed consent processes and assumption of risk
- Effects of marketing on physician and patient decision-making including
the debate over
the current revision of the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual (DSM)
- Evaluation of claims of neuropsychiatric impairment
- Effects of publicity, placebo, and nocebo effects on the doctor-patient
relationship and symptom presentation
In the wake of a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions on standards
for reliability of expert methodology, distinguished forensic psychiatric
experts may be asked to evaluate and opine as to the reliability of forensic
psychiatric methodology of previously retained experts. Dr. Bursztajn
has been retained as an "expert on experts" based on his teaching
and publications (see for example his recent article On
Skepticism and Tolerance in Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry in
the Psychiatric Times' Forensic Bonus Issue) in the area of evaluation
of reliability of forensic methodology and his service on a variety of
relevant national professional standards committees. These range from
the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law Ethics Committee to the American
Bar Association's Advisory and Expert Panel for the State Justice Institute
(SJI) Benchbook Project on Psychiatric and Psychological Evidence.
Questions of interest include whether the opinion of an expert meets
generally accepted standards for reliability for forensic medical, psychiatric,
and mental health evaluations. These include analyses of an expert's
methodology for reliability of:
- Data gathering
- Data analyses
- Opinion formulation
Dr. Bursztajn's classic article Avoiding
Ipse Dixit Mislabeling: Post-Daubert Approaches to Expert Clinical
Opinions informs us how experts can reduce the likelihood that their conclusions
will be mislabeled. He continues to advise clinical experts across
the spectrum of medical specialties, the bar, and the judiciary as
to the fundamentals of clinical expertise post-Daubert/Joiner/Kumho evidentiary
standards for the reliability of testimony of clinical experts. Also,
see Dr. Bursztajn and colleagues explore the evolving role of the
clinical expert post-Kumho in
his article, Kumho for
Clinicians in the Courtroom.
Dr. Bursztajn has served as an expert relative to expert methodoogy in Daubert and Frye hearings and has also cautioned against attorneys' abuse of such hearings. Attorney requests for such hearings need not be automatically granted by judges, as exemplified by the following case in which the court denied an attorney's motion for a hearing on Dr. Bursztajn's own methodology: Panchenkova v. Chigirinsky Order Regarding Motion to Preclude Expert Testimony Denied.
Harold
J. Bursztajn, MD -[Curriculum Vitae]-
has over thirty years of service as a distinguished patient
care-focused clinician and as senior clinical faculty at Harvard
Medical School. Among his many distinctions at Harvard Medical School
is being recognized as a practicing "doctor's doctor" by
being named Principal
Mentor at Harvard Medical School and being awarded the A.
Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award as well as being
the first physician/forensic psychiatrist in Harvard Medical School's
history to be appointed as the representative of the Harvard Medical
School Alumni Board of Directors to the Harvard University Alumni
Board. He continues to be active in patient care, forensic consultation,
and medical and judicial education. His continued contributions to medical education have been most recently recognized nationally with his being named a 2015 Flexner Dean’s Lecturer at Vanderbilt Medical School.
He is co-Founder of the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at the Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center Department of Psychiatry of Harvard Medical
School and Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical
School. Author of the highly acclaimed book, Medical
Choices, Medical Chances this classic has been reviewed favorably
in leading medical journals ranging from the New England Journal
of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association to
the American Journal of Psychiatry. Among his other leading
contributions to medical and mental health education are three books Divided
Staffs, Divided Selves, a Case Approach to Mental Health Ethics, Decision
Making in Psychiatry and the Law and Psychiatric
Ethics and the Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities in Institutions
and the Community, as well as numerous articles in medicine, psychiatry,
forensic neuropsychiatry and clinical ethics.
Dr. Bursztajn consults clinically and forensically, provides second opinions
in patient care, teaches medical students and conducts continuing medical
education courses for professionals; and advises institutions, the courts,
and public health-oriented media on forensic psychiatry and clinical
ethics-related issues. He serves as a peer reviewer expert for leading
medical and psychiatric journals, non-profit medical and ethics review
organizations, health care and human services corporations and the judiciary.
His numerous awards and honors in the course of thirty years of
service as a Harvard Medical School clinical faculty member range from
the Solomon Faculty Research Prize to his being named as one of only
fifty Principal
Clinical Mentors for Harvard Medical School entering class.
In addition to his thirty year commitment to patient care, Dr. Bursztajn
consults nationally and internationally to individuals and institutions,
plaintiff and defense attorneys, and the courts as a distinguished forensic
psychiatric expert. Among his areas of expertise are treating vulnerable
patients, improving medical and mental health decision making, informed
consent and malpractice and product liability risk reduction, and standards
for the forensic evaluation of employment-related claims, diminished
capacity, forensic neuropsychiatric autopsies, violence prevention, the interface between medicine and psychiatry, and pain and suffering and the dying process.
Dr. Bursztajn is active in public education and promoting intergenerational
learning and inquiry. Contributions to public education include his work
as a guest analyst on news programs including NPR's
Talk of the Nation; CNN
Headline News; ABC News on such diverse topics as end
of life criminal confessions, mental
vulnerability of terrorist recruits, and Randy
Quaid's financial problems; Boston's
WCVB News Show Chronicle and public education programs such as those
presented by ABC's Discovery Channel including "Who
Killed Julius Caesar?, " "Who
Killed Tutankhamun?," "Who
Killed Alexander the Great?,"
"The Mysterious Death of Cleopatra," and "Columbus:
Secrets From The Grave."
His work in public education with teams of experts from a variety of
scientific and humanities backgrounds has been recognized both academically
in Harvard Magazine and
publicly in The
Sunday London Times.
Dr. Bursztajn teaches and consults nationally to psychiatrists and other
mental health professionals, as well as to physicians across the primary
and specialty medical care spectrum. He continues to publish and present workshops nationally and internationally
on a variety of special interest topics in medicine and in general and
forensic neuropsychiatry.
There are a variety of areas of human suffering which, insofar as they
evoke painful or frightening feelings, can become all too sadly unspeakable.
Among Dr. Bursztajn's special interests are the long-term consequences
of massive psychic trauma. Over the years he has explored this topic
in workshops for health
care providers both nationally and internationally. He also continues
to consult and teach to a variety of health-care professionals, ranging
from members of hospice ethics committees to surgical
grand rounds (written up here in
the Boston Globe) attendees regarding the foundations of current clinical
and organizational ethics standards for patient care. Dr. Bursztajn's
motivation for becoming a doctor and for continuing to practice clinically
and to teach nationally can be found in the following article: "The
Shoah and its Aftermath," which presents the testimony of Dr.
Bursztajn father, a Holocaust survivor.