Anupam Bapu Jena, MD, PhD, will join Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy on July, 1st 2012 as an Assistant Professor of Health Care Policy. He is currently a resident in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and will continue working there as a hospitalist once he joins HCP. Jena et al. published results from one of their recent studies in the August 2011 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The article entitled, “Malpractice risk according to physician specialty,” presents the analysis of malpractice data from 1991 through 2005 for all physicians who were covered by a large professional liability insurer with a nationwide client base (40,916 physicians and 233,738 physician-years of coverage). For 25 specialties, they reported the proportion of physicians who had malpractice claims in a year, the proportion of claims resulting in an indemnity payment, and the size of indemnity payments. Bapu and his colleagues concluded that “there is substantial variation in the likelihood of malpractice suits and the size of indemnity payments across specialties. The cumulative risk of facing a malpractice claim is high in all specialties, although most claims do not lead to payments to plaintiffs” (Jena et al, 2011). This study was recently mentioned in the New England Journal of Medicine’s Editorial section, and the editorial reiterates the results from Jena’s study. The feature also mentions that even though the costs of dispute resolution are higher for claims that result in indemnity payments, there is still a meaningful cost in resolving claims that never result in payment. To learn more about Jena’s research please read his article, editorial, Reuters article, or a US Health News report about his work.