The project has received provincial grant funding.

The Medical Law Clinic idea was put forth by Andrey Anisimov, Lecturer in medicine and biology at Kazan Federal University, and implemented in 2018 in cooperation with the Department of Court Medicine of Kazan State Medical University.

According to Dr. Anisimov, a poll in 2018 revealed that 92% of medicine and biology students are very interested in learning more about legal responsibilities and litigation against medical professionals. In that year alone, 6,600 complaints against medicine workers were filed in the Republic of Tatarstan, and 2,229 criminal investigations were initiated.

Every year, the number of complaints grows, and sometimes doctors are hesitant about tackling especially serious cases. The Medical Law Clinic takes court cases and adapts them for students.

“Students of the three medical universities of Kazan partake in our classes,” says Anisimov. “They can thoroughly study some mistakes made by their senior colleagues and not repeat them in the future. Practicing physicians, lawyers, academics, and government officials visit such meetings. Our initiative has been supported by Nadezhda Muratova, Professor at the Department of Criminal Process and Criminalistics of Kazan Federal University.”

The classes, taking place once a month, attract up to a hundred students, PhD researchers, and even experienced professionals. Thanks to the grant funding, the classes – which are completely free – can utilize more resources to present materials in a more interesting way.

The project’s research supervisor is Valery Spiridonov, Professor in court medicine at Kazan State Medical University, Chief Forensic Examiner of the Main Department of Criminalistics of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

Source text: Larisa Busil

Translation: Yury Nurmeev