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The Essential Role of Death Certificates in Public Health

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Over at ReachMD, they have an interesting podcast I haven’t heard discussed elsewhere: The Essential Role of Death Certificates in Public Health.

As we spend more time talking about how to incorporate prevention into our work, I think this beautifully illustrates how even those of you doing death investigation work can fold in these concepts. From the site:

Death certificates are essential to the creation of public health policies and determination of funding allocation. In addition, death certificates can bring public health epidemics to the forefront. Dr. Jeffrey Levine, clinical associate professor of medicine at New York Medical College, discusses how physicians can accurately report the immediate, intermediate and underlying causes of death. What medical-legal issues might be impacted by the accuracy or inaccuracy of death certificates?

As with all ReachMD programs, site registration is required, but access is free.

1 reply on “The Essential Role of Death Certificates in Public Health”

As an owner of a funeral home, I can only hope all physicians, not just some, take the death certificate a little more seriously and note the appropriate cause of death. We have seen some physicians write unknown as the cause of death because he/she doesn’t “like to put something specific down”. Others, simply list a cause to “get it off my desk”. It is important to list a meaningful and pertinent cause of death supported by the patient’s diagnosis and history.

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