Confessions of a Quackbuster

This blog deals with healthcare consumer protection, and is therefore about quackery, healthfraud, chiropractic, and other forms of so-Called "Alternative" Medicine (sCAM).

Tuesday, April 19, 2005

State medical board suspends license of Dr. James Shortt

State medical board suspends license of W. Columbia alternative medicine doctor

(Columbia-AP) April 15, 2005 - A doctor at the center of a steroid investigation involving Carolina Panthers players has been suspended by the state medical board.

The board called Doctor James Shortt of West Columbia a "serious threat" to public health. The South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners says he prescribed the steroid testosterone to four male patients for reasons that are unlikely to be legitimate.

An accompanying document from a state Labor Licensing Department investigator says the dosage and refill levels for the testosterone "provide a strong indication" that they were used for medically unnecessary purposes such as increasing muscle mass.

A medical board spokesman declined to say whether any of the four males cited in the suspension order were Panthers players. The order also cited the 2004 deaths of two patients whose families have filed malpractice lawsuits.

Along with the investigation into illegal steroid prescriptions and controversial intravenous hydrogen peroxide treatments, Doctor Shortt faces accusations of questionable diagnoses of Lyme disease.

The order of temporary suspension by the South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners says Shortt diagnosed and treated patients for Lyme disease "based only on the results of tests by an unaccredited out-of-state laboratory with a 100 percent positive rate for Lyme disease."

The order says the alternative medicine physician also did not report the alleged cases of Lyme disease to the state Department of Health and Environmental Control as required by law. His attorney Ward Bradley says Shortt was unaware that he was required to report the cases to DHEC.

Shortt told a Charlotte, North Carolina, newspaper he's done nothing wrong.

Posted 8:20pm by Chantelle Janelle