Application of Peer Review in Investigating Allegations of Medical Negligence and Malpractice

As an editor of a biomedical journal, “peer review” is one of the most important tools I use in my daily practice. I believe the key word in this term is “peer” which means “one that is of equal standing with another.” And, “peer review” means “a process by which something proposed (as for research or publication) is evaluated by a group of experts in the appropriate field.” Simply said, it means that we will ask a cardiologist to assess the suitability of a manuscript on cardiology and a neurologist to assess the merits for publication of a paper on neurology in our journal. Although it has several shortcomings, peer review is still the best available method used by editors of scientific journals to judge the merits for publication of submitted manuscripts.2