The Vascular Center for Men: The Internet Incident

Epilogue

The state examining board ended up “cutting a quick deal” with Dr. Thomas a day after his actions became public in the local newspaper.  He retains his license for now but is banned “from prescribing by telephone or using the Internet to solicit phone subscriptions.”9  Board officials acknowledged that they had prior knowledge of Dr. Thomas’ court-martial on sex charges and his surrendering of his license in Arizona during another investigation, but had not acted on that information.  The Federal Trade Commission and the state office of consumer protection were to meet to investigate whether Thomas violated federal deceptive advertising laws or not.  The board will continue its investigation into this matter, with the cooperation of Dr. Thomas.

The instructor may turn the classroom discussion to the action, or lack thereof, of the state examining board.  As the Milwaukee reporter wrote, “What was not addressed in the agreement was why the state Department of Regulation and Licensing had not taken action concerning Thomas sooner.”10  The editors summed up the incident with this editorial on 4/24/98:

“Nonetheless, the case raises disturbing legal and ethical questions about the practice of Internet medicine, in which patients can get prescriptions on line and order drugs from overseas pharmacies without prescriptions.  Moreover, state officials need to explain why they did not act sooner ….  Considering that Thomas is a licensed Wisconsin physician, such official dawdling is an appalling breach of the public trust in the state’s regulatory system.”11

DISCLAIMER

This critical incident and teaching note was prepared by Rod Henry, Carol Nielsen, and Jeff Totten of Bemidji State University, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of the situation.  Copyright 1999 by Rod Henry, Carol Nielsen and Jeff Totten.

SECOND EPILOGUE

The Vascular Center for Men clinic filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in November, 1998.  The center owed the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel approximately $1800 for advertising.  The Center actually ceased operations in June of that year.12