Dr. Donald Palmisano

Donald J. Palmisano, MD, JD, founder and president of Intrepid Resources, is both a physician and an attorney. Because he fully understands legal as well as medical issues, he is uniquely qualified to help you protect yourself against the potentially devastating effects of malpractice and liability claims.

Dr. Palmisano was a key participant in the passage of Louisiana’s Medical Malpractice Act which mandates medical review panels prior to suit and sets a $500,000 cap on total recovery except for medical expenses as incurred.

As a founding member of a physician professional liability insurance company, he reviewed over 3,000 claims and was responsible for approving attorney submissions to medical review panels. He served on it’s board from 1982 until September 1989. Dr. Palmisano is a past president of the Louisiana State Medical Society and was chair of Louisiana’s delegation to the American Medical Association. In 1996, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association. The Louisiana State Medical Society published The Pelican Newsletters that advocated his election. In 1999, he was re- elected to the AMA Board of Trustees. He served as Secretary-Treasurer of AMA and in June 2002 he was elected President-Elect.

He served as the 158th president of the AMA in 2003-2004. His term on the AMA Board ended June 2005 when he completed his immediate-past president year.

Dr. Palmisano is Clinical Professor of Surgery and Clinical Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at the Tulane University School of Medicine and Dr. Palmisano is a clinical professor of surgery and clinical professor of medical jurisprudence at Tulane University School of Medicine and was President of the Tulane Surgical Society for the year 2000. Also, in 2005 he was appointed Adjunct Professor in the Department of Health Systems Management of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. In June 2005, he was elected to the Board of Governors of Tulane University Health Sciences Center. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) and served as Chair of the Development Committee responsible for fundraising. In November 2000, he became Chair of the Communications Program and serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Patient Safety. From July of 1999-December 2003, Dr. Palmisano served as a Commissioner on the board of the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and serves on the National Advisory Council of the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences.

The Doctors Company, a leading nationwide not-for-profit medical liability insurance company for physicians voted Dr. Palmisano to join their board of governors in October 2004. Leading Authorities, Inc., North America’s foremost resource for world class speaking talent, placed Dr. Palmisano in their 2005-2006 Association Edition catalogue. In August 2005, The Doctors Company named Donald J. Palmisano, M.D., as Recipient of Award for the Advancement of Patient Safety.

Dr. Palmisano’s published clinical research has included the first documentation that copper is an essential nutrient to adult health. Recent publications include: Expanding insurance coverage through tax credits, consumer choice, and market enhancements: the American Medical Association proposal for health insurance reform. JAMA, 2004 May 12;291(18):2237-42 and Health care in crisis. Circulation. 2004 Jun 22;109(24):2933- 535. The December 2004 issue of The Saturday Evening Post contains an article by Dr. Palmisano entitled Why Your Doctor Might Quit which explains the effects of the broken medical liability system.

In 2000, Dr. Palmisano was one of 60 American “opinion-leaders” chosen by the Department of Defense to participate in the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC 63). This 9-day program allowed Dr. Palmisano to visit military bases of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard and learn about our fighting forces, their equipment and capabilities, and national defense strategies.

For a decade Dr. Palmisano served as Chair of the Louisiana Medical Disclosure Panel, created by the Louisiana legislature. This panel determines therapy risks that must be disclosed to patients for informed consent. In 2000, he was installed into the Hall of Fame of the Louisiana State Medical Society. He was selected as one of the “Top Doctors” in New Orleans for the year 2001 by an editorial board of New Orleans area physicians, and was featured on the cover of the August 2001 issue of New Orleans Magazine.

An acknowledged champion of ethical science-based Medicine and maintaining access to care for patients, Dr. Palmisano continues as a spokesperson for Medicine, relentlessly pursuing reform of the broken medical liability system and the other ills affecting the delivery of health care. He routinely debates medical liability reform adversaries on national television. He also has appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today Show to discuss patient privacy and medical record confidentiality. He has been featured on CNN’s The Capitol Gang as the newsmaker of the week and appeared on ABC’s Nightline to debate the medical liability crisis. Dr. Palmisano was the newsmaker at the National Press Club on July 9, 2003, which was covered by C-Span, and has appeared on multiple additional televised news programs including ABC’s World News Tonight, CNN’s Talk Back Live, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews, CNN’s Crossfire, ABC’s Nightline, John McLaughlin’s One on One, Fox News with Tony Snow, and Aaron Brown’s NewsNight.

The changing health care system will focus more and more on keeping costs low. Reducing your risks of costly claims will be more and more important in the future. In addition, America has brought patient safety to the national discussion with the publication of the Institute of Medicine report on medical error. With a full range of risk management, claims evaluation and related services–and with Dr. Palmisano on call with his extensive medical and legal expertise– Intrepid Resources can give you an edge in patient safety and risk management.