According to PubMed Central, “standard of care” is a legal term, not a medical term. One definition is: “the level of care that a responsibly competent and skilled medical professional who has a similar background to and practices in the same medical community, would have provided to a patient under the same set of circumstances.” That is, would the doctor do pretty much what others in the community do? Other definitions emphasize the opinion of experts and the recommendation of guidelines generated by experts. Some states have a strong locality rule suggesting that one should be judged only by what is done in the community, while most states have leaned more toward national standards, especially for specialists.