[The data on statistical surveillance of recording forensic medical expertises of the harm to human health collected by the Bureau of Forensic Medical Expertise (BFME) in Central Health Department of the Moscow region].

This publication deals with the analysis of application of the "Medical criteria for the harm to human health" put into force on September 16, 2008, as exemplified by the work of the Bureau of forensic medical expertise (BFME), Central Health Department of the Moscow region, during the period from 2007 and 2010. The data were borrowed from the materials of departmental statistical reporting (F.42) on forensic medical examinations of the harm to human health carried out during the period between 2007 and 2010. In addition, the statistical report of BFME on the application of the medical criteria in 2010 was used. The number of forensic medical expertises for the estimation of the degree of harm to human health was shown to decrease by 9% but remain 3% higher than the average across the country. The number of expertises of severe harm to the health increased by 15% as in the whole of the country with the concomitant 20% reduction in the number expertises of mild and moderate harm. These trends are unrelated ether to the changes in the frequency of crimes leading to the serious harm to the health or to the number of subjects convicted of such crimes. It was found that p.p. 6.1.1 - 6.1.30 of the "Medical criteria" that list life-threatening injuries are most frequently (in 58% of the cases) used to document facts of severe harm to the health. The same is true of p.p. 6.11. - 6.11.11 listing the injuries responsible for the persistent loss of occupational capacity (by at least one third). The frequency of application of concrete paragraphs of the (Medical criteria, is determined within each group. The largest number of expert errors (3.2%) were committed while estimating serious harm to the health based on the paragraphs listing the injuries responsible for the persistent loss of occupational capacity (by at least one third). The minimal number of such errors (1%) were committed while estimating serious harm to the health from life-threatening injuries.