Importance Approximately 8% of physicians experience a malpractice claim annually. Most malpractice claims are a result of adverse events, which may or may not be a result of medical errors. However, not all medicolegal cases are the result of medical errors or negligence, but rather, may be associated with the individual nature of the patient-physician relationship. The strength of this relationship may be partially determined by a physician’s emotional intelligence (EI), or his or her ability to monitor and regulate his or her emotions as well as the emotions of others. This review evaluates the role of EI in developing the patient-physician relationship and how EI may influence patient decisions to pursue medicolegal action.

Observations Several physician characteristics are associated with increased medicolegal risk. Some of these traits, such as sex, age, level of experience, and specialty, are inherent. Other characteristics, such as patient interaction, patient satisfaction, and prior legal history, appear to be related to physicians themselves, yet they are modifiable if such physicians can be identified. Numerous tools exist that provide general measures of different aspects of EI. Furthermore, identification of those with lower EI and intervention with specific training has been shown to improve both EI and patient satisfaction.

Conclusions and Relevance The study and effect of EI within medicine offers great opportunity to investigate how physician characteristics may influence one’s EI, as well as medicolegal risk. This review suggests an indirect negative correlation between a physician’s level of EI and his or her risk of litigation. Studies directly linking physicians with low EI to a higher risk of litigation are lacking and may provide valuable insight. Demonstrating such a correlation should prompt the development of interventions that may enhance a physician’s level of EI early in his or her career and may limit future legal action.

重要性 每年约有 8% 的医生会遇到医疗事故索赔。大多数医疗事故索赔是不良事件的结果，这可能是也可能不是医疗错误的结果。然而，并非所有法医案件都是医疗错误或疏忽的结果，而是可能与医患关系的个体性质有关。这种关系的强度可能部分取决于医生的情商 (EI)，或者他或她监控和调节他或她的情绪以及他人情绪的能力。本综述评估了 EI 在发展医患关系中的作用，以及 EI 如何影响患者采取法医行动的决定。

观察 一些医生特征与法医风险增加有关。其中一些特征，例如性别、年龄、经验水平和专业，是与生俱来的。其他特征，如患者互动、患者满意度和先前的法律历史，似乎与医生本身有关，但如果可以识别这些医生，它们是可以修改的。有许多工具可以提供对 EI 不同方面的一般测量。此外，已证明识别具有较低 EI 的人并通过特定培训进行干预可以提高 EI 和患者满意度。

结论和相关性 EI 在医学中的研究和影响为研究医师特征如何影响一个人的 EI 以及法医风险提供了很好的机会。本综述表明，医生的 EI 水平与其诉讼风险之间存在间接负相关。缺乏直接将 EI 低的医生与较高的诉讼风险联系起来的研究，这些研究可能会提供有价值的见解。证明这种相关性应促进干预措施的发展，这些干预措施可能会提高医生在其职业生涯早期的 EI 水平，并可能限制未来的法律诉讼。