ABSTRACT
Examination of a traumatically brain-injured person for treatment differs in many distinct ways from the examination designed to provide information to a trier of fact within a court of law (jury, judge, or administrative law judge). The role of the treating physician vis-à-vis a patient is sacrosanct. Hippocrates, one of the early practitioners of medicine and upon whom the modern practitioners of medicine model themselves, stated in his text, Epidemics, Book 1, Section XI, ‘‘As to diseases, make a habit of two things, to help or at least to do no harm.’’ At a later time, the remarkable physician Galen wrote on this subject and translated this phrase into Latin as primum non nocere. His statement translates from Latin as ‘‘first do no harm.’’
