Medicolegal Sidebar: Free Speech Rights Versus Off-Label Use.

1Clinical Professor, Orthopaedic Surgery, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA 2Chief Executive Officer and President, SINTX Technologies, Salt Lake City, UT, USA B. S. Bal ✉, 2000 E. Broadway, #251, Columbia, MO 65201, USA, Email: [email protected] A note from the Editor-in-Chief: We are pleased to publish the next installment of “Medicolegal Sidebar” in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research®. The goal of this quarterly column is to encourage thoughtful debate about how the law and medicine interact, and how this interaction affects the practice of orthopaedic surgery. We welcome reader feedback on all of our columns and articles; please send your comments to[email protected]. Each author certifies that there are no funding or commercial associations (consultancies, stock ownership, equity interest, patent/licensing arrangements, etc.) that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article related to the author or any immediate family members. All ICMJE Conflict of Interest Forms for authors and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research editors and board members are on file with the publication and can be viewed on request. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research® neither advocates nor endorses the use of any treatment, drug, or device. Readers are encouraged to always seek additional information, including FDA approval status, of any drug or device before clinical use. The opinions expressed are those of the writers and do not reflect the opinion or policy of CORR® or The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons®.