Healthcare Inspection Scopes of Practice for Unlicensed Physicians Engaged in Veterans Health Administration Research Activities

The purpose of this review was to determine whether research activities performed by unlicensed physicians employed in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) fell outside their scopes of practice, as determined by state law. We found that 5 of the 14 facilities reviewed did not employ unlicensed physicians in their research departments. The remaining 9 facilities identified 25 unlicensed physicians assigned to 59 human subjects research studies.