Accessible and Accountable

State Medical Boards provide information about physicians free to the public.  Many boards have made this information available on their websites where consumers can determine a physician’s licensure status, educational background, medical specialty, and disciplinary history. Consumers who wish to find out more about their physicians can contact their state medical board.

Responding to increased demand for public access to physician disciplinary information, the Federation of State Medical Boards has made publicly available a Disciplinary History Report service at www.docinfo.org. Disciplinary History Reports, based on data from the FSMB's comprehensive, nationally-consolidated data bank of disciplinary histories on U.S.-licensed physicians, enable consumers to make informed decisions about the physicians they utilize.

Annual Summary of Board Disciplinary Actions

Each year, FSMB publishes an Annual Summary of Board Actions, a compilation of disciplinary actions initiated by the 70 state medical boards. The 2005 Summary of Board Actions was published as part of the document Trends in Physician Regulation. The report includes disciplinary data for each board from 2001-05.  During this five-year period, the total number of actions taken by medical boards rose from 4,662 in 2001 to 6,138 in 2005.

The Annual Summary of Board Actions is most useful to track trends in physician discipline within each state. Comparisons or rankings across states are not useful as states operate with different financial resources, levels of autonomy, legal constraints and staffing levels.

To view Annual Summary of Board Actions reports since 1990, visit the Physician Data Center Board Action Archive.