Medical examiner
A physician appointed to investigate deaths, determine causes and manners of death, and certify findings under a medical-examiner system.
Death investigation: The official inquiry into a death’s circumstances, cause, and manner. Medical examiners conduct these inquiries when deaths meet jurisdictional criteria.
Forensic pathology: The medical specialty that applies pathology to investigate deaths with legal significance. Many medical examiners are trained in this specialty.
Coroner: A public official responsible for investigating certain deaths, whose qualifications and duties vary by jurisdiction. Unlike a medical examiner, a coroner is not necessarily a physician.
National Violent Death Reporting System: A US system linking information about violent deaths from medical examiners, law enforcement, and other sources. Examiner records contribute to surveillance of violent-death patterns.
Undetermined death: A death whose manner cannot be assigned confidently to another standard classification. Examiners use this classification when available evidence cannot resolve circumstances.
Forensic autopsy: A postmortem examination performed to establish identity and determine cause and manner of death. It can provide the medical evidence behind an examiner’s conclusions.
Pathology: The study of disease, its causes, mechanisms, and effects on the body. Pathology supplies the diagnostic methods used in postmortem examinations.
Coroner system: A death-investigation system led by elected or appointed coroners, with procedures varying by jurisdiction. It differs institutionally from a system headed by appointed medical examiners.
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy: A sudden death in a person with epilepsy that remains unexplained after appropriate investigation. Postmortem investigation can help identify and classify such deaths.
Sudden infant death syndrome: The sudden death of an infant under one year that remains unexplained after a thorough investigation. Classification depends on careful investigation and exclusion of identifiable causes.