Border areas in head and neck pathologies: Professional liability in the multidisciplinary approach; [Implicazioni medico-legali nel trattamento delle patologie di confine della testa e del collo]

Discussing border areas in Head and Neck pathologies means addressing diseases’ convergence point of different specialities and professionalisms guided by a common goal: patient health. Starting from the concept of a border, it becomes possible to define the content of a new model of team responsibility: no longer that of the team leader who, as a new Agamemnon, takes on the role of scapegoat when things go wrong, even for errors not directly attributable to his supervision, but that of a primus inter pares, a King Arthur with the Knights of the Round Table, committed like the others, each with his wealth of experience and knowledge, to pursue the same goal. A member of this team assumes the role of spokesperson for diagnostic and therapeutic solutions within a process of acquiring consent that recovers the dimension of verbal and non-verbal communication with the patient. In such a context, in which criminal liability can be challenging to identify based on the principle of in dubio pro reo and civil liability in some countries has already transferred the burden of compensation from the professional to the healthcare facility. In most, no-fault compensation systems appear consistent.