Crossing the line: sexual boundary violations by physicians.

In this edition of The Interface, we review the literature related to sexual boundary violations by physicians. This literature consists of data from both disciplinary boards/agencies and anonymous surveys of physicians. Our findings indicate that disciplinary actions far under-represent the actual prevalence of self-reported physician boundary violations of patients. However, both prevalence rates represent a very small minority of practitioners. According to these findings, most self-reported boundary violations entail male physicians who are predominantly in the areas of family medicine, psychiatry, and obstetrics/gynecology.