RESEARCH The need for speed: observational study of physician driving BMJ: first published as 10.1136/bmj.l6354 on 18 December 2019. Downloaded from behaviors André Zimerman,1 Christopher Worsham,1,2,3 Jaemin Woo,1 Anupam B Jena1,2,4 1Department of Health Care ABSTRACT 40.9%, 95% confidence interval 35.9% to 45.9%) Policy, Harvard Medical School, OBJECTIVE and least common among physicians in emergency Boston, MA 02115, USA To determine whether fast driving, luxury car medicine, family practice, pediatrics, general surgery, 2 Department of Medicine, ownership, and leniency by police officers differ and psychiatry (eg, adjusted proportion of luxury car Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA across medical specialties. ownership among family practice physicians 20.6%, 3Division of Pulmonary DESIGN 95% confidence interval 18.2% to 23.0%). Speed and Critical Care Medicine, Observational study. discounting, a marker of leniency by police officers Massachusetts General in which ticketed speed is recorded at just below the SETTING Hospital, Boston, MA, USA threshold at which a larger fine would otherwise be 4 Florida, USA. National Bureau of Economic imposed, was common, but rates did not differ by Research, Cambridge, MA, USA PARTICIPANTS specialty and did not differ between physicians and a Correspondence to: A B Jena 5372 physicians and a sample of 19 639 non-
[email protected] sample of non-physicians. physicians issued a ticket for speeding during 2004-17. (@anupambjena on Twitter CONCLUSIONS ORCID 0000-0002-9734-5122) MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Rates of extreme speeding were highest among Additional material is published Observed rates of extreme speeding (defined as online only.