Doctors, Research & Evidence Challenging the Diagnosis

Click to explore research from medical professionals and physicians who question, challenge, or identify potential errors in child abuse diagnoses.

• Mutual Deference Between Hospitals and Courts: How Mandated Reporting From Medical Providers Harms Families — Columbia Journal of Race and Law

• Using Child Abuse Specialists to Reduce Unnecessary Child Protective Services Reports and Investigations — M. Raz & J. Gupta-Kagan

• New Texas Law Curtails Power of Pediatricians Contracted by CPS — The Imprint

• When a Medical Specialty Is Not a Specialty At All — A. Verbenac

• A Doctor Challenged the Opinion of a Powerful Child Abuse Specialist. Then He Lost His Job — ProPublica

• This Doctor Specializes in Diagnosing Child Abuse. Some of Her Conclusions Have Been Called Into Question — ProPublica

• Florida’s Top Child Abuse Pediatrician Justifies Questionable Findings of Abuse — WPTV

• Embattled Former UW Child Abuse Pediatrician Resigns Alaska Position — Wisconsin Watch

• J.R. v. Missouri Department of Social Services, Children’s Division — Missouri Court of Appeals

• Comstock v. Walsh — Missouri Court of Appeals

• National Children’s Alliance — Annual Reports

• American Academy of Pediatrics — Child Abuse and Neglect

• Exploring the Controversy in Child Abuse Pediatrics and False Accusations of Abuse — Legal Medicine

• Medical Mimics of Child Abuse — American Journal of Roentgenology

• A Critical Review of the American Academy of Pediatrics Technical Report on Abusive Head Trauma

• Abusive Head Trauma: Evidence, Obfuscation, and Informed Management

• Acceptance of Shaken Baby Syndrome and Abusive Head Trauma as Medical Diagnoses — Journal of Pediatrics

• How Antiscience Creates Confusion About the Diagnosis of Abusive Head Trauma — JAMA Pediatrics

• Flawed Theories to Explain Child Physical Abuse: What Are the Medical-Legal Consequences? — JAMA

• Is the Diagnosis of Physical Abuse Changed When Child Protective Services Consults a Child Abuse Pediatrics Subspecialty Group as a Second Opinion? — Child Abuse & Neglect (2009)

• Using Simulation to Identify Sources of Medical Diagnostic Error in Child Physical Abuse — Child Abuse & Neglect (2016)

• Evaluation for Bleeding Disorders in Suspected Child Abuse — Pediatrics (2022)

• Relevance of Abusive Head Trauma to Intracranial Hemorrhages and Bleeding Disorders — Pediatrics (2018)

• Evaluation of the Hypothesis That Choking/ALTE May Mimic Abusive Head Trauma — Academic Pediatrics (2017)

• Differences Between Viral Meningitis and Abusive Head Trauma — Pediatrics (2022)

• Bruising in Children: Practice Patterns of Pediatric Hematologists and Child Abuse Pediatricians — Clinical Pediatrics (2015)

• A Two-Center Retrospective Review of the Hematologic Evaluation and Laboratory Abnormalities in Suspected Victims of Non-Accidental Injury — Child Abuse & Neglect (2014)

• Assessment of Factors Resulting in Abuse Evaluations in Young Children With Minor Head Trauma — Child Abuse & Neglect (2008)

• The Mistaken Diagnosis of Child Abuse: A Form of Medical Abuse? — American Journal of Diseases of Children

• Abusive Head Trauma: Neuroimaging Mimics and Diagnostic Complexities — Pediatric Radiology

• The Neuroimaging Mimics of Abusive Head Trauma — Pediatric Radiology

• Neuroimaging Differential Diagnoses to Abusive Head Trauma — Pediatric Radiology

• Ethical Challenges in Child Abuse: What Is the Harm of a Misdiagnosis? — Pediatric Radiology

• Using Simulation to Identify Sources of Medical Diagnostic Error in Child Physical Abuse — Child Abuse & Neglect

• Differential Diagnosis of Child Physical Abuse: Conditions That May Be Mistaken for Child Abuse

• Lyme Disease Misinterpreted as Child Abuse — Case Reports in Orthopedics

• “Mimics” of Injuries from Child Abuse: Case Series and Review of the Literature — Children

• Medical Mimics of Child Abuse — American Journal of Roentgenology

• Is the Diagnosis of Physical Abuse Changed When CPS Consults a Child Abuse Pediatrics Subspecialty Group as a Second Opinion? — Child Abuse & Neglect

• Exploring the Controversy in Child Abuse Pediatrics and False Accusations of Abuse — Legal Medicine