OFFICIAL NAME (ROYAL DECREE 127/84) OF THE SPECIALIZATION AND REQUIREMENTS
Legal and Forensic Medicine
Duration 3 years
Prior undergraduate (Licenciatura) degree: Medicine
CURRICULUM
INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIALIZATION
Generalities: Definition, objectives, limitations, relationship with other sciences, historical development, social and professional projection of the specialization of legal and forensic medicine.
Expert method: Scientific and technical characteristics. Limitations and problems with research and expert opinion. Ethical and legal meaning of expert evidence.
Organization of legal and forensic medicine: In Spain and compared to other countries in the European Union. In relation to other medical and health care activities.
Professional exercise in the specialization of legal and forensic medicine: Academic and legal requirements. Ways of exercising. Professional responsibility. Ethical standards.
MEDICAL LAW AND HEALTH CARE LEGISLATION
Legal regulations: Hierarchy, range and content of medical-legal interest of: codes, laws and procedures of the different jurisdictions at the level of the Spanish State and compared to the European Union.
Health-administrative regulations: Hierarchy, range and medical-legal content of the regulations on provision, organization, structure and operation of institutions and management bodies of health care, at the level of: State, Autonomous Communities and compared with the European Union.
Organization of the Administration of Justice: Bodies, powers, estates, officials and institutions and medical-forensic professionals.
Organization of the Health Administration: Administrative planning and health management bodies. Functions and competences of the different health care estates and institutions. Hospital functional organization charts. Hospital accreditation standards.
Medical law: range, content and social, health, professional medical and medical-legal projection.
Organization and exercise of health professions: Regulations. Medical-legal criteria for professional practice. Labor relations. Medical fees. Medical-administrative procedures
Medical-legal documents: types, characteristics, meaning, applications and standards of preparation and structure.
Administrative-health documents: Types, characteristics, meaning, applications and standards of preparation and structure, processing, availability and management of information.
Medical confidentiality: Concept, characteristics of confidential information. Medical-legal meaning. Standards for the treatment of medical information.
Medical professional liability: Legal criteria. Medical-legal criteria of the medical act and clinical-patient care norms. Methodical assessment and medical-legal expertise.
Responsibility in health management and administration: Legal and medical-legal criteria. Areas of professional competence. Organizational structure of health administration, at national and regional levels. Public institutions, semi-private and private.
Professional and institutional accident claims in the provision of health services: Type, characteristics and ways of claiming. Rules of processing, assessment and medical-legal prevention. Civil liability coverage policies. User support services. Medical-legal management of claims.
MEDICAL DEONTOLOGY AND CLINICAL HEALTH CARE ETHICS
Medical ethics: Concept, meaning and professional medical, social and health projection of ethical standards. Ethics commissions. Rules of ethical procedures.
Code of ethics: Content and specific and comparative medical-legal assessment of national, provincial and/or regional and international codes.
Clinical bioethics: Concept, content, medical-legal meaning and medical-professional, social and health projections.
Ethical standards and community and national bioethical legislation: Content and medical-legal meaning of specific regulations on medical activities and actions, clinical-care process and procedure, and basic and clinical investigation.
Committee/commissions on bioethics/care ethics: Types, purpose, medical-legal meaning and rules on: structure, operation and action procedure.
LEGAL AND FORENSIC MEDICINE SERVICES
Insurance medicine: Types, characteristics and medical-legal content, functional competencies and action procedures. Standards for technical advice, medical-legal expertise and management of legal medicine services in insurance entities.
Legal medicine in health care: Types, characteristics and competences. Functional and structural organization chart of legal medicine services in health institutions. Procedures for action and management of legal medicine services/units.
Forensic medicine: Types, characteristics and competences. Structural and functional organization chart of legal and forensic medicine institutes/services. Methodological and operational means. Management procedure of institutes and/or services.
THANATOLOGY
Death as a biological process and a social phenomenon: Medical-legal criteria. Spanish and community thanatological legislation.
Medical-legal study of agony and death certificate.
Diagnosis of certain death and medical-legal characteristics of brain death. Transplant law.
Cadaverous phenomena: Medical-legal study.
Destructive phenomena of the corpse: Medical-legal study.
Diagnosis of date and time of death: Investigation methodology of the date of death and co-death/pre-death/survival.
Medical-legal study of death: Natural, sudden, violent or suspected of criminality.
Medical-legal investigation of the place of death: Lifting of the corpse: technique, equipment and instruments and forensic methodology.
Medical-legal autopsy: Anatomical-pathological, criminal and forensic characteristics Necropsy conditions and equipment. Autopsy and complementary techniques. Methodology of necro diagnosis and anatomical-clinical-criminal correlations. Special autopsies.
Forensic opinion on cause of death: Characteristics and forensic purpose. Protocol and method of medical-forensic report.
Embalming: Techniques and methodology of conservation and morphological repair of the corpse. Regulations and medical-legal protocols of the mortuary health police. Exhumation of corpses: administrative requirements and medical-legal and health purposes. Necropsic investigation technique. Sampling. Report protocols and exhumation records.
FORENSIC HISTOPATHOLOGY
Tissue sampling: Technique for obtaining and processing tissues for histopathological, structural and ultrastructural study.
Microscopic study: Investigation method. Means and functional organization of the forensic histopathology laboratory.
Forensic cytology and histochemistry: Applications, technique and methodology. Histopathological study of inflammation and infection with medical-legal criteria.
Microscopic study of cadaveric phenomena.
Microscopic study of the vitality and data of injuries.
Histopathological study of the skin, organs and tissues with medical-legal criteria.
Histopathological study and macro-microscopic correlations in different types of violence.
Study and histopathological research methodology in sudden death in adults and children.
Histopathological study of the pathology of the various organs of medical-legal relevance.
FORENSIC PATHOLOGY
Crime of injury and reparation of damage to persons: Legal basis, criteria and elements of medical-legal assessment. Medical-legal protocol for action in clinical care.
Medical-legal expertise of injuries in criminal, civil and social law. Protocols and method of expertise.
Study of the different pathologies of medical-legal interest.
Medical-legal study of the different forms of violence and causal mechanisms of injury and death.
Medical-legal study of causal relationships and with causes, in the genesis and evolutionary complication of injuries.
Medical-legal study of mechanical asphyxia.
Medical-legal study of assaults with weapons.
Medical-legal study of traffic accidents: land, air and sea.
Medical-legal study of injuries and death according to the different causal agents of violence.
Study and special medical-legal aspects of major catastrophes.
Special medical-legal study of injuries according to anatomical location and injury mechanism: diagnosis of homicide, suicide and accident.
Medical-legal study of simulation and dissimulation.
Correlations of forensic pathology with other medical specialties.
OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY LAW
Occupational medicine: Concept, clinical and occupational characteristics of workplace pathology. Organization and functions of occupational health services / company medicine.
Occupational health: Medical-health and labor criteria. Legislation.
Work physiology: Occupational medical criteria. Job fatigue and work adaptation. Ergonomics. Job profiles.
Work accidents: legal basis and legislation. Types and pathogenic characteristics. Elements of medical-legal assessment. Medical-administrative protocol of action and processing of files. Medical-legal expertise procedure. Occupational diseases: legal basis and legislation. Types and pathogenic characteristics. Elements of medical-legal assessment. Medical-administrative protocol of action and processing of files. Medical-legal expertise procedure.
Health and safety at work: Legislation and standards of hygiene and safety in premises and workplaces. Elements of assessment and procedure of medical-legal expertise.
Occupational disability: Legal basis and elements of medical-legal assessment. Aptitude for work: concept and medical-legal assessment. Medical-administrative procedure and medical-legal expertise in temporary and permanent occupational disability. Medical-legal investigation of the mechanism of death, injury and/or occupational disease in the workplace.
BODILY DAMAGE
Concept: Legal basis and medical-legal elements of assessment Spanish and community legislation on disability and the scale of sequelae.
Medical-legal study of the different damages and patrimonial and extra-patrimonial reparation, of bodily harm
Scales and assessment guides: Concept, types and methodology of application of national and international models. Legislation.
Medical-legal opinion of bodily harm: Expert evaluation method and exploration, diagnosis and evaluation protocol.
Asset quantification: Elements of estimation of direct and indirect costs of bodily harm Approach to actuarial calculation.
FORENSIC PSYCHIATRY
Criminal liability and civil capacity: Legal basis. Elements of medical-legal assessment. Causes and modifying circumstances of liability and capacity. Criteria in the expert assessment.
Dangerous state: Legal concept and medical-legal criteria of dangerousness. Legal repression of dangerousness and security measures in Spanish law. Rehabilitation of the offender. Circumstances and medical-legal expert examination procedure.
Psychogenesis of the criminal act and criminal factors of medical-legal interest. Medical-legal study of personality and behavioral disorders: Classification, clinical diagnosis, crime, circumstances and expert examination procedure.
Medical-legal study of psychosis: Classification, clinical diagnosis, crime and expert evaluation of liability and civil capacity.
Medical-legal study of other psychopathological disorders of forensic interest.
Addictions: Classification of drugs of abuse, clinical diagnosis. Crime of drug use and trafficking. Expert evaluation of liability.
Clinical care for the mentally ill: Legal criteria and medical-legal aspects of hospital admission. Expertise examination procedure and medical-legal protocol for hospital care. Legislation.
Clinical bases of personality exploration, psychodiagnosis and forensic psychometry.
Medical-legal psychiatric opinion: medical-legal criteria and legal applications. Exploration method and medical-legal expertise. Limits and prognostic difficulties.
FORENSIC SEXOLOGY AND FAMILY LEGAL MEDICINE
Crime against the sexual freedom of people: legal basis and elements of medical-legal assessment.
Sexual assaults: legal basis and elements of medical-legal assessment.
Methodology and action protocol in clinical care and medical-legal expertise.
Medical-legal study of the sex of people, intersex states and sex change: Legal basis, elements of medical-legal evaluation, and procedures for investigation and expert opinion.
Legal medicine of marriage: Legal basis, elements of medical-legal evaluation, and procedures for investigation and expert opinion. Special study of impotence and fertilization.
Violence and abuse in the family: Legal basis, elements of medical-legal evaluation, and procedures for investigation and medical-legal expertise regarding abuse in spouses, children and the elderly.
Pregnancy and birth: Legal basis, elements of medical-legal evaluation, and procedures for investigation and medical-legal expert opinion. Medical-legal protocols for clinical action.
Abortion: Legal basis. Legislation on voluntary termination of pregnancy. Elements of medical-legal evaluation. Investigation procedures and medical-legal expertise. Medical-legal protocol in clinical actions.
Sterilization: Legal basis. Legislation on voluntary sterilization. Elements of medical-legal evaluation. Investigation procedures and medical-legal expertise. Medical-legal protocol in clinical actions.
Legal medicine of the newborn and childhood: Legal basis and elements of medical-legal assessment of the criminal and civil spheres. Investigation procedures and medical-legal expertise.
CRIMINALISTICS
Examination of the crime scene: Methodical search, collection and sending of evidence, objects and samples to the crime laboratory.
Identification of the living subject and the dead body: Means and methodical technique.
Fingerprinting: Investigation applications and techniques.
Forensic odontology: Applications and investigation techniques and generic diagnosis, species and individual.
Stains from other organic fluids: Search, investigation techniques and generic diagnosis, species and individual, in sperm, urine, feces, saliva, etc.
Medical-legal study of hair, hair and nails: Morphological characteristics and generic diagnosis, species and individual.
Paternity and maternity investigation: Legislation, method of investigation and medical-legal expertise.
Other laboratory techniques of medical-legal interest.
Study of graphics, handwritten and typewritten documents: Aspects of medical-legal interest.
Ballistics: General aspects of medical-legal interest.
Organization and management of crime laboratories.
TOXICOLOGY
Medical-legal study of injuries and death by toxic agents.
Sampling for toxicological investigation: Search method, collection, preparation and sending to the laboratory. Toxicology laboratories.
General analytical investigation and specific identification of toxics: technique, research method and evaluation of results.
Study of pathologies, means of investigation and diagnosis of intoxications of medical-legal interest.
Drugs of abuse: Classification and pharma chemical characteristics. Medical-legal study of early diagnosis, analytical screening methods. Health care and therapeutic measures.
Ethyl alcohol: Legal medical study of the diagnosis of intoxications and investigation of live and cadaveric alcohol levels, in relation to traffic accidents and criminal behavior.
Ecotoxicology: special study of medical-legal aspects of ecological crime.
Medical-legal study of chemical weapons.
