Few official resources exist for S.C. patients who want to check whether a physician has been disciplined by a medical board or sued for malpractice in another state, such as Anil Potti, the former Duke University oncologist who falsified data in a clinical trial and then moved to this area after resigning from the university in 2010.
Potti now practices oncology at Coastal Cancer Center, which is headquartered in Myrtle Beach and has four other locations along the Grand Strand and in Brunswick County, N.C.
Potti claimed five years ago that he had discovered a way to match cancer treatments to a patient’s DNA, a breakthrough that would ensure a greater treatment success rate, according to the “60 Minutes” television show and numerous newspaper articles and medical journals that have chronicled Potti’s career.
Duke University in Durham, N.C., conducted three clinical trials based on Potti’s research. Those trials were halted in 2010 when it became clear that Potti had fabricated much of his research data. Potti and the university are being sued by at least eight patients – or their estates – who took part in the clinical trials and Potti has retracted nine academic articles about the research that were published in medical journals.
Potti started practicing at Coastal Cancer Center about five months after his resignation from Duke University. The website for the S.C. Board of Medical Examiners, however, has no information about Potti’s problems in North Carolina.
The medical board’s website only states that Potti was issued a medical license in South Carolina in April 2011, that no disciplinary action has been taken against him by the S.C. board and that he is “in good standing.” Potti also is licensed in North Carolina.
Lesia Kudelka – a spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which includes the state medical board – said the board does not list disciplinary actions taken against doctors in other states.
That means patients must do their own research to find out if their doctor has problems elsewhere, said Fayrell Furr, a Myrtle Beach lawyer who specializes in malpractice cases. One of the easiest research methods, Furr said, is typing the doctor’s name into an Internet search engine.
“If you’re going to a new doctor, Google them,” Furr said, adding that South Carolina “is not very diligent” about screening doctors who’ve run into trouble in other states.
“They let just about anybody in,” he said.
Lawrence Holt, an oncologist who founded Coastal Cancer Center, declined to comment to The Sun News, referring questions to a Myrtle Beach public relations firm. A spokeswoman for that firm could not be reached for comment.
However, Holt told Myrtle Beach television station WBTW TV-13 that Potti was highly recommended by his former colleagues.
“Many Duke physicians actually said that they would have no trouble with him taking care of their own family members,” Holt told the television station.
Potti has said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the matter. Potti called the fraudulent research at Duke University “a past controversy” in a letter he sent to the S.C. medical board with his license application.
Potti also hired a firm that specializes in creating positive websites for customers to crowd out negative information that might come up during an Internet search. Potti’s biography on the Coastal Cancer Center website also has no mention of the controversy.
“It sounds like he has … crossed the line by not giving the whole story,” Jerome Kassirer, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, told Duke University’s student newspaper, The Chronicle. “It seems to me inappropriate and unprofessional.”
Potti has had other problems in North Carolina in addition to the manipulated research data. He claimed to be a Rhodes Scholar on his resume at Duke University, which university officials later learned was false.
The N.C. Medical Board reprimanded Potti in December for including multiple inaccuracies about awards he purportedly won and other accomplishments on his resume and Duke University biography. The N.C. board’s website also shows Potti had 11 malpractice claims filed against him between November 2007 and June 2009 and that he is the focus of a medical research misconduct inquiry by Duke University.
None of that information, however, is available on the S.C. Board of Medical Examiners web site.
Kudelka said the S.C. board is notified of disciplinary actions taken against licensees in other states, but that information isn’t posted on the website unless the state board takes additional action.
“When the S.C. Board of Medical Examiners is notified that one of its licensees has been disciplined in another state, it reviews the information and makes a determination on whether to investigate and/or take an action,” she said.
Kudelka could not say whether Potti is the focus of any S.C. investigation.
“State law prohibits the Board of Medical Examiners from acknowledging if a doctor is under investigation,” she said.
Furr said the lack of information from state regulators unfairly puts the burden on patients to figure out how to do background checks on physicians.
There is a National Practitioner Data Bank that includes information about malpractice judgments and other disciplinary actions taken against doctors nationwide, but it is not available to the public.
There are some websites that provide background information for a fee, but those databases are not always accurate or complete. The best course of action, Furr said, is to find out where the doctor has practiced in the past – either by questioning the doctor or the clinic where he or she works – and then check with that state’s medical board to see if any disciplinary action has been taken.
Potti now practices oncology at Coastal Cancer Center, which is headquartered in Myrtle Beach and has four other locations along the Grand Strand and in Brunswick County, N.C.
Potti claimed five years ago that he had discovered a way to match cancer treatments to a patient’s DNA, a breakthrough that would ensure a greater treatment success rate, according to the “60 Minutes” television show and numerous newspaper articles and medical journals that have chronicled Potti’s career.
Duke University in Durham, N.C., conducted three clinical trials based on Potti’s research. Those trials were halted in 2010 when it became clear that Potti had fabricated much of his research data. Potti and the university are being sued by at least eight patients – or their estates – who took part in the clinical trials and Potti has retracted nine academic articles about the research that were published in medical journals.
Potti started practicing at Coastal Cancer Center about five months after his resignation from Duke University. The website for the S.C. Board of Medical Examiners, however, has no information about Potti’s problems in North Carolina.
The medical board’s website only states that Potti was issued a medical license in South Carolina in April 2011, that no disciplinary action has been taken against him by the S.C. board and that he is “in good standing.” Potti also is licensed in North Carolina.
Lesia Kudelka – a spokeswoman for the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which includes the state medical board – said the board does not list disciplinary actions taken against doctors in other states.
That means patients must do their own research to find out if their doctor has problems elsewhere, said Fayrell Furr, a Myrtle Beach lawyer who specializes in malpractice cases. One of the easiest research methods, Furr said, is typing the doctor’s name into an Internet search engine.
“If you’re going to a new doctor, Google them,” Furr said, adding that South Carolina “is not very diligent” about screening doctors who’ve run into trouble in other states.
“They let just about anybody in,” he said.
Lawrence Holt, an oncologist who founded Coastal Cancer Center, declined to comment to The Sun News, referring questions to a Myrtle Beach public relations firm. A spokeswoman for that firm could not be reached for comment.
However, Holt told Myrtle Beach television station WBTW TV-13 that Potti was highly recommended by his former colleagues.
“Many Duke physicians actually said that they would have no trouble with him taking care of their own family members,” Holt told the television station.
Potti has said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the matter. Potti called the fraudulent research at Duke University “a past controversy” in a letter he sent to the S.C. medical board with his license application.
Potti also hired a firm that specializes in creating positive websites for customers to crowd out negative information that might come up during an Internet search. Potti’s biography on the Coastal Cancer Center website also has no mention of the controversy.
“It sounds like he has … crossed the line by not giving the whole story,” Jerome Kassirer, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, told Duke University’s student newspaper, The Chronicle. “It seems to me inappropriate and unprofessional.”
Potti has had other problems in North Carolina in addition to the manipulated research data. He claimed to be a Rhodes Scholar on his resume at Duke University, which university officials later learned was false.
The N.C. Medical Board reprimanded Potti in December for including multiple inaccuracies about awards he purportedly won and other accomplishments on his resume and Duke University biography. The N.C. board’s website also shows Potti had 11 malpractice claims filed against him between November 2007 and June 2009 and that he is the focus of a medical research misconduct inquiry by Duke University.
None of that information, however, is available on the S.C. Board of Medical Examiners web site.
Kudelka said the S.C. board is notified of disciplinary actions taken against licensees in other states, but that information isn’t posted on the website unless the state board takes additional action.
“When the S.C. Board of Medical Examiners is notified that one of its licensees has been disciplined in another state, it reviews the information and makes a determination on whether to investigate and/or take an action,” she said.
Kudelka could not say whether Potti is the focus of any S.C. investigation.
“State law prohibits the Board of Medical Examiners from acknowledging if a doctor is under investigation,” she said.
Furr said the lack of information from state regulators unfairly puts the burden on patients to figure out how to do background checks on physicians.
There is a National Practitioner Data Bank that includes information about malpractice judgments and other disciplinary actions taken against doctors nationwide, but it is not available to the public.
There are some websites that provide background information for a fee, but those databases are not always accurate or complete. The best course of action, Furr said, is to find out where the doctor has practiced in the past – either by questioning the doctor or the clinic where he or she works – and then check with that state’s medical board to see if any disciplinary action has been taken.
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