Forensic Medicine is the branch of medicine that interacts with the low, the judiciary and the police, where an extensive knowledge of medicine is essential to assist the legal process. The term is usually equated with forensic pathology and autopsies. In fact, forensic medicine covers the three areas of forensic pathology, forensic psychiatry and clinical forensic medicine.
Clinical forensic medicine is a relatively new term although the work it encompasses has been undertaken by doctors for centuries. Various term have been used to describe practitioners of clinical forensic medicine including police surgeon, forensic medical officer, government medical officer and forensic medical examiner. More recently, and with the introduction of postgraduate training programmers in the discipline, the term forensic physician is used.Unlike forensic pathologists, who generally deal only with the dead,forensic physicians have broader role and also deal with the living. the actual role varies between jurisdictions but may include custodial medicine, traffic medicine examination and interpretation of findings of adults and children alleging either physical or sexual assault or torture, assessment of alcohol and drug intoxication and withdrawal, assessment of mentally disturbed and intellectually impaired persons, assessment of fitness for detention in custody and interview by police, the collection of forensic samples, the conduct of intimate body searches, the investigation of deaths in custody, the examination of crime and death scenes, conduct autopsies. occupational health, the provision of expert opinions in courts and tribunals.
Depending upon the specific tasks undertaken and the legal and forensic requirements of specific jurisdictions, the forensic physician appropriate equipment. Figure 3 shows an example of a forensic physician's doctors bag or forensic bag.
