About PlainDiscipline
Our Mission
PlainDiscipline exists because patients deserve easy access to information about how effectively their state medical board polices the medical profession. Every state has a medical board responsible for licensing physicians and disciplining those who practice below acceptable standards — but the data about board enforcement activity is scattered across 50 different state systems with inconsistent formats and varying levels of accessibility.
We believe this information should be centralized, standardized, and freely available. Our mission is to aggregate publicly available physician disciplinary action data from state medical boards across the United States and present it in a format that anyone can understand and use for informed healthcare decisions.
PlainDiscipline does not accept advertising from healthcare providers, does not recommend specific physicians, and does not earn referral fees. We present federal and public data as-is and direct users to official state board resources for individual physician verification.
Data Sources
Our core discipline rate data comes from:
- Public Citizen Health Research Group — HRG Publication #2235, "Ranking of the Rate of State Medical Boards' Serious Disciplinary Actions" covering the 2021-2023 period. Public Citizen has published these rankings since the 1990s.
- Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) — Physician Data Summary Statistics 2023, providing licensed physician counts by state for rate normalization.
- State Medical Board Websites — Board contact information, URLs, and phone numbers sourced directly from official state government pages.
Methodology
PlainDiscipline presents discipline rates calculated as serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 licensed physicians. This per-capita normalization allows fair comparison between states with vastly different physician populations. "Serious disciplinary actions" as defined by Public Citizen include license revocations, suspensions, surrenders, probations with restrictions, and other significant adverse board orders.
We rank states by their discipline rate, with higher rates indicating more active board enforcement per licensed physician. We also provide board contact information and direct links to physician lookup tools for every state, enabling patients to verify individual physician credentials directly through official channels.
What We Track
- 50 states plus D.C. — Discipline rates, physician counts, and board contact information
- Serious disciplinary actions — Revocations, suspensions, surrenders, and probations with restrictions
- State rankings — National comparison of medical board enforcement activity
- Board resources — Direct links and contact details for every state medical board
Data Currency
The current dataset uses the most recent Public Citizen ranking covering the 2021-2023 period and FSMB physician data from 2023. Public Citizen typically publishes updated rankings every 2-3 years. FSMB physician data is published annually. We update PlainDiscipline when new editions of these reports become available.
State medical board contact information is verified against official state government websites and updated as boards change their web addresses or contact details.
Important Limitations
- This is aggregate state-level data, not individual physician records. To verify a specific physician, always check directly with the state medical board.
- Rates reflect reported and recorded actions — undiscovered misconduct is not counted.
- State boards vary in resources, reporting requirements, and enforcement culture, making direct comparisons imperfect.
- Minor actions like letters of concern or administrative fines are generally excluded from "serious" counts.
YMYL Responsibility
Healthcare decisions are high-stakes. We take accuracy seriously and cite every data point. Nothing on PlainDiscipline constitutes medical or legal advice. If you have a healthcare concern about a physician, contact your state medical board directly. If you have a medical emergency, call 911. Always verify credentials through official channels before making healthcare decisions based on provider background.
Who This Is For
PlainDiscipline serves patients who want to understand how actively their state medical board polices the profession before choosing a healthcare provider. It serves researchers studying medical board enforcement patterns and policy effectiveness. It serves journalists investigating healthcare quality and oversight issues. And it serves policymakers evaluating whether medical board resources, authority, and enforcement culture are adequate to protect patients in their jurisdiction.
For all users, we recommend combining PlainDiscipline aggregate data with direct verification of individual physician credentials through your state medical board. Our guides section provides step-by-step instructions for checking physician backgrounds, understanding disciplinary actions, and navigating the medical board system.
Editorial Independence & How Content Is Produced
Content on PlainDiscipline is compiled by our editorial team from official source data. Raw data from the Public Citizen Health Research Group, the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), and individual state medical board websites is transformed into readable profiles by our continuous editorial pipeline, then validated against the source before publication. The PlainDiscipline editorial team, operating under Kiznis Studio, is responsible for editorial standards, methodology, and corrections.
We do not accept payment, sponsorship, or promoted placement from state medical boards, physicians, hospitals, healthcare systems, or any regulated entity. Our only revenue source is contextual display advertising served by Google AdSense — advertisers do not influence which states or boards we cover or how we present data, and they do not receive preferential placement.
Contact
Questions, corrections, or data feedback: hello@plaindiscipline.com. We welcome reports of data discrepancies and suggestions for improving our presentation of medical board enforcement data.