• Abdulelah S Bin Shihah, Abdulrahman H Alrashed, Khaled A Al-Abduljabbar, Hassan A Alamri, Mohammed Shafiq, Mayada N Ahmed, and Abdullah H Alkhenizan.
• From the Department of Family Medicine & Polyclinics (Bin Shihah, Alrashed, Al-Abduljabbar, Shafiq, Ahmed, Alkhenizan), King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh; and from the Department of Internal Medicine (Alamri), King Abdallah Hospital, Bisha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
• Saudi Med J. 2022 Aug 1; 43 (8): 954958954-958.

ObjectivesTo determine the level of awareness of medical law among healthcare practitioners and to identify factors that influence that level of awareness in Saudi Arabia.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was carried out in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2020-2021 via a survey including 750 healthcare practitioners, from different specialties including all regions in Saudi Arabia. Participants included consultants, senior registrars, interns, and residents.ResultsMajority of enrolled healthcare practitioners had poor awareness of medical law (approximately 97%). Only 1.5% had adequate awareness of medical law, and only 1.5% had moderate awareness. Factors associated with increased medical law awareness were the age group between 25 and 34, being from the central region, and having a clinical practice for less than 10 years p-value of <0.05.ConclusionAwareness of medical law among healthcare practitioners is limited in Saudi Arabia. Professional medico-legal education should be part of required competencies for undergraduate and postgraduate levels of medical education. Health care practitioners must be educated with laws and regulations of practicing health professions in the country.Copyright: © Saudi Medical Journal.

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