Résumé :
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[BDSP. Notice produite par INIST x4mBR0xE. Diffusion soumise à autorisation]. Context. - Medical legal investigations in the United States (primarily unnatural or suspected unnatural deaths) are carried out by medical examiner or coroner systems. Medical examiners-usually physicians and generally with training in pathology, medicolegal death investigation, and performance of forensic autopsies-generally have greater expertise in unnatural death investigations than do coroners. Objective. - To document the locations and implementation year for states and counties that have medical examiner systems that have replaced coroner systems or that are defined in statute and assist coroners in their investigations. Design. - Review of published information and national survey in 1997. Setting. - United States. Participants. - County medical examiners and state medical examiners or their administrators. Main Outcome Measures. - The location of states and counties with medical examiner systems, the implementation year for each system, and the proportion of counties and population served by medical examiner systems. Results. - A total of 79 of 91 county medical examiners responded. A total of 36 states have at least 1 medical examiner system at the county, district, or state level in which there is no coroner involved in the death investigation process. Only 22 states have medical examiner death investigation systems in place and have no coroners in the state. (...)
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