Medical experts can play a significant role in diagnosing child abuse. As medical science has evolved, however, the judicial system has come to realize that expert testimony about whether an injury or death was caused by abuse can be problematic.

Medical experts are not present when an injury occurred and have no firsthand knowledge of its cause. To decide whether an injury was caused accidentally or intentionally, experts must engage in deduction. The line between deduction and speculation can be exceedingly thin.

Until recently, a pediatrician in Tacoma was regarded as one of Washington’s leading child abuse experts. Authorities believed she had an uncanny ability to detect “subtle” signs of child abuse. Unfortunately, “subtle” evidence is usually synonymous with “ambiguous” evidence. The pediatrician’s opinions have been called into question, in part because she provided untrue information about her expertise.

Dr. Elizabeth Woods

Government authorities in Washington routinely relied on Dr. Elizabeth Woods to provide expert opinions about child abuse. Those opinions provided the foundation for criminal proceedings and for civil actions to remove children from their parents.

Until recently, Dr. Woods was the director of the child abuse intervention program at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital in Tacoma. On several occasions, Dr. Woods’ professional opinions were controversial.

In one case, Dr. Woods opined that a mother had abused her 5-year-old daughter by seeking excessive and harmful medical treatments. Authorities responded by removing the 5-year-old and the mother’s 8-year-old (who was never alleged to be a victim) from the mother’s custody.

In another case, Dr. Woods concluded that a 2-year-old child’s bruise was caused by abuse. Although her opinion contradicted a pediatrician’s opinion that the bruise was consistent with the parent’s explanation that the child accidentally fell on a heating grate, authorities who regarded Dr. Woods as a child abuse expert removed the child from the parent’s home.

Those cases and others were the subject of an extensive investigation by NBC News and one of its affiliates. NBC discovered that Dr. Woods “lacks key medical training for assessing potential abuse cases.”

Lack of Credentials

In some cases, the results of child abuse are so obvious that most pediatricians can readily determine that injuries could only have been inflicted with the intent to harm the child. In other cases, the evidence is less clear.

Pediatricians who specialize in child abuse now receive extensive training that helps them identify abuse. In addition to general training in pediatrics, a child abuse pediatrician completes a 3-year child abuse pediatrics fellowship. The physician must then pass an examination to become board certified in child abuse pediatrics.

In the case of the 5-year-old who was allegedly subjected to unnecessary treatment, Dr. Woods admitted on cross-examination that she did not complete the medical fellowship that is required to specialize as a child abuse pediatrician and was not board certified in the field. She claimed that the training is unnecessary.

While the necessity of specialized training might be a matter of opinion, Dr. Woods also testified about facts that are simply untrue. Dr. Woods testified that there “are approximately 250 of us nationwide that function as child abuse consultants” and “a very small minority of those have received training.” She also claimed that she had not completed the training because it was first offered three years before she testified.

NBC reported that the child abuse subspecialty was created in 2009, while Dr. Woods was still in medical school. NBC also reported there are 375 certified child abuse pediatricians in the United States, all of whom either completed the training or were allowed to take the board exam based on years of experience prior to the 2009 creation of the subspecialty.

The pediatrician who determined that a child’s bruise was consistent with accidentally falling on a grate was astonished that child welfare authorities accepted Dr. Woods’ claim that the bruise was caused by abuse. The authorities claimed they believed Dr. Woods because of her “extensive training,” prompting the pediatrician to ask, “Where’s the extensive training?”

How Training Shapes Opinions

Certified child abuse pediatricians have been trained not to give opinions that exceed the bounds of medical knowledge. For example, Dr. Woods prepared a report that claimed two young parents probably abused their child because, in her opinion, they didn’t display an appropriate emotional reaction when they learned that their baby had suffered several fractures. Medical knowledge does not allow a doctor to identify abusers by their emotional reactions. In any event, certified child abuse pediatricians are trained to understand that their role is to identify abuse, not to identify the abusers.

In another case, Dr. Woods reported that twin babies who suffered multiple fractures must have been the victim of abuse because “a motor vehicle collision” would be the only possible alternative cause of those injuries. Dr. Woods identified no medical basis for that opinion, but child welfare authorities accepted it without question and removed custody of the children from their parents.

Three medical experts later concluded that the fractures were probably caused by a mineral deficiency that weakens bones, a potential cause that Dr. Woods failed to identify. A well-trained specialist would have ruled out all potential alternative causes of the injuries rather than jumping to the conclusion that they resulted from abuse.

Having appropriate training is important because child welfare authorities generally defer to medical experts. If an expert claims that an injury was likely caused by abuse, child welfare authorities tend to err on the side of protecting the child. That often means removing children from their parents, even if the parents are entirely innocent. Authorities who base decisions on suspicions rather than solid evidence often harm, rather than help, the children they are charged with protecting.

Slow Response

Hospital leaders were slow to recognize that Dr. Woods held herself out to be an expert in the absence of credentials possessed by actual experts. A spokesperson for Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital claimed that Dr. Woods “has treated thousands of children over her many years of dedication to this field.” There is a difference, however, between treating an injured child and determining the cause of the injury. The fact that Dr. Woods has years of experience doesn’t mean she has a history of correctly identifying child abuse when the medical evidence is ambiguous.

The spokesperson also praised Dr. Woods for being “an ally to the vulnerable children in our community.” Unfortunately, experts who regard themselves as an ally for a cause often slant their opinions to serve that cause. An expert who regards herself as an advocate for children will tend to find abuse when the evidence is ambiguous. An expert witness should be an advocate for the truth, not for a cause, even if the cause is as worthy as preventing child abuse.

For a time, officials at Mary Bridge and Seattle Children’s Hospital, which manages the state’s child abuse medical consultation network, simply ducked questions about Dr. Woods’ misstatements under oath. They apparently did not consider whether Dr. Woods should be trusted to form reliable opinions about child abuse if she could not give reliable answers about her credentials.

Belated Removal from Role as Child Abuse Expert

While reluctant to accept an uncomfortable truth, Washington authorities and hospital administrators belatedly acknowledged that Dr. Woods’ credibility is open to challenge. Dr. Woods is no longer the director of the child abuse intervention program at Mary Bridge. Internal documents obtained by NBC imply that hospital officials initiated the change in response to a review of the program that the hospital asked an outside expert to conduct.

Last month, Dr. Woods was removed from the roster of doctors who provide expert medical reports to Washington’s child welfare agency. Dr. Woods’ removal was celebrated by parents whose children were taken away based on Dr. Woods’ expert opinion. Some of those parents have told their stories in a Facebook group devoted to wrongly accused families.

At least two Washington prosecutors have taken the honorable step of reviewing cases in which Dr. Woods testified. One prosecutor is notifying defense attorneys in those cases that grounds exist for challenging Dr. Woods’ credibility. Prosecutors in two counties added Dr. Woods to their list of potentially discredited expert witnesses, and the prosecutor in Kitsap County is considering whether it should add Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital to that list.

Lessons Learned

Expert witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense provide critical testimony in criminal cases. Expert reports in civil cases can persuade child welfare authorities to take the drastic but common step of separating children from their parents out of an abundance of caution, an action that may inflict more harm on children than it prevents.

Given the importance of expert opinions, it is vital that child abuse experts have appropriate training. It is just as vital for experts to have integrity. Experts should base opinions on their best assessment of medical evidence, not on a well-intentioned desire to protect children. Any bias that grows out of an expert’s desire to advance a cause necessarily compromises the expert’s objectivity and impairs the expert’s value to prosecutors and child welfare agencies.