RALEIGH - Patients will be able to access a public Web site that shows medical malpractice payouts their doctors have made, but the information will not be as comprehensive as initially planned.

Answering concerns from doctors, medical malpractice insurers and defense lawyers, the N.C. Medical Board voted Wednesday to make public only settlements of more than $25,000. In addition, the board scaled back the number of years it would initially publish the data. Rather than immediately post settlements that spanned the previous seven years, the board set the start date of the malpractice profiles at October 2007, when the legislature made the rule effective.

"The goal of the board is to protect the public," said Dr. Janelle A. Rhyne, the chairwoman who practices in Wilmington. The information, even scaled back, will provide patients with more information about the doctors who treat them, Rhyne said. The data are slated to go on the board's Web page in fall 2009.

But the rule still may be challenged. The N.C. Medical Society, which lobbies for doctors, led opposition to the proposal and was not entirely satisfied with Wednesday's compromises.

"They moved in a reasonable direction, and that's a positive thing," said Stephen W. Keene, general counsel for the medical society. "But they did not fully address our concerns."

Keene said the society's leadership will meet this weekend and decide whether to press forward with opposition. It could contest the planned change to the state agency that oversees rules, pushing the issue back to the legislature and possibly postponing enactment.

The biggest sticking point remains the time frame for the malpractice data. Doctors and their lawyers argue that malpractice payments are often made with secrecy clauses that both sides agree to and are legally binding. By posting data from the past, they contend, those agreements could be breached. Some have threatened litigation over the matter, but no formal lawsuit has been filed.

Board attorneys have pointed to more than 20 states that have published malpractice payout information, and none said the issue caused problems.

"No one sued us, and the sky didn't fall," wrote W.L. Harp, executive director of Virginia's medical board, which began posting 10 years worth of data in 2001.

The medical board also conducted a poll of North Carolina residents that showed a vast majority of respondents -- 81 percent -- support full disclosure of medical malpractice payments. Also, 84 percent said they would like the information to show the past seven years of data.

"Almost all adults in the state want this Web site to be made available with seven years of archived information from the beginning," said Public Policy Polling, the polling company, "and most of them want all cases posted regardless of settlement cost or finding of substandard care."