The Power of Medical Boards

Both Andy and Alan have been reported to their respective medical boards, both have had to hire lawyers, both have had to fight for their right to speak and to practice medicine.  The Board of Physicians is an extrajudicial entity, operating in each state to monitor and discipline physicians.  Most courts have said that doctors do not have the right to free speech or free choice.  Even if what doctors do and say is based on good data and their own experience, even if what they do or say is done is done to save lives or improve the medical system, if their actions or words clash with specialist and drug company protocols the doctor can be disciplined, censored, even lose his/her license to practice.  Such Boards were established at the dawn of modern medicine, intended to assure that all doctors follow the script written by the AMA and corporate foundations after the Flexner Report enshrined the AMA as the singular regulatory entity in healthcare.  During that time, doctors who, for example, did not endorse Eugenics or racial medicine could be disciplined, as too could all African American and women doctors.  Today's doctors are tied to a corporate-specialist orchestrated set of protocols that often fall in the face of good data or appropriate patient care, especially for older patients, but none of that matters to the Board.  Doctors have no recourse when the Board declares them to be in violation of specialty protocols, and most Board members are specialists.  This is yet one reason primary care doctors are handcuffed and often cannot use their common sense, experience, critical thinking skills, and research to care for patients, especially when such behavior challenges protocols.  Profits always trump patient care, and the Boards seek to assure that caveat is never challenged.