Conflicts of Interest are Bad, Just Not Our Own

The Geiers, Hooker and Company have a new "Review" out which is hilariously titled,

"Systematic Assessment of Research on Autism Spectrum Disorder and Mercury Reveals Conflicts of Interest and the Need for Transparency in Autism Research"

Abstract

Historically, entities with a vested interest in a product that critics have suggested is harmful have consistently used research to back their claims that the product is safe. Prominent examples are: tobacco, lead, bisphenol A, and atrazine. Research literature indicates that about 80–90 % of studies with industry affiliation found no harm from the product, while only about 10–20 % of studies without industry affiliation found no harm. In parallel to other historical debates, recent studies examining a possible relationship between mercury (Hg) exposure and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show a similar dichotomy. Studies sponsored and supported by industry or entities with an apparent conflict of interest have most often shown no evidence of harm or no “consistent” evidence of harm, while studies without such affiliations report positive evidence of a Hg/autism association. The potentially causal relationship between Hg exposure and ASD differs from other toxic products since there is a broad coalition of entities for whom a conflict of interest arises. These include influential governmental public health entities, the pharmaceutical industry, and even the coal burning industry. This review includes a systematic literature search of original studies on the potential relationship between Hg and ASD from 1999 to date, finding that of the studies with public health and/or industry affiliation, 86 % reported no relationship between Hg and ASD. However, among studies without public health and/or industry affiliation, only 19 % find no relationship between Hg and ASD. The discrepancy in these results suggests a bias indicative of a conflict of interest.

Keywords

Research Conflict of interest Transparency Autism Mercury Toxicants

Authors and Affiliations

• Janet K. Kern: Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., 14 Redgate Court, Silver Spring, MD 20905, USA
•  David A. Geier: Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., 14 Redgate Court, Silver Spring,   MD 20905, USA
•  Richard C. Deth: Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA
•  Lisa K. Sykes: CoMeD, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, USA
•  Brian S. Hooker: Simpson University, Redding, CA, USA
•  James M. Love: CoMeD, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, USA
•  Geir Bjørklund: Council for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine, Mo i Rana,   Norway
•  Carmen G. Chaigneau: CoMeD, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, USA
•  Boyd E. Haley: University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
•  Mark R. Geier: Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., 14 Redgate Court, Silver Spring,    MD 20905, USA 

This study was supported by the non-profit 501(c)(3) Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc., and the non-profit 501(c)(3) CoMeD, Inc.

Conflict of interest

There are no competing financial interests. The authors have been involved in vaccine/biologic litigation.

Given who the authors are this review reads like a parody.  Let's take a look at their actual conflicts of interest and laugh at the sheer irony of them writing this.

The authors' COI statement of, “The authors have been involved in vaccine/biologic litigation.“ is both misleading and incomplete because it implies this litigation is in the past. Brian Hooker is currently a petitioner in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program on behalf of his son, Steven. Other authors, Geier, Haley and Kern are acting as expert witnesses for Dr. Hooker's case. James M. Love is providing some legal assistance. They all contend that the vaccine preservative thiomersal caused Steven Hooker's autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 
http://ia902504.us.archive.org/31/items/gov.uscourts.cofc.2340/gov.uscourts.cofc.2340.docket.html

Dr. Hooker also serves on the board of Focus for Health (https://www.focusforhealth.org/about-us/our-board/) (formerly Focus Autism) an anti-vaccine organization with the agenda to, “put an end to the needless harm of children by vaccination”.  One of their vision statements is "Investigate the relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and neurological dysfunction, such as tics, since CDC studies have confirmed a connection."  

The editorial staff of Translational Neurodegeneration has withdrawn Dr. Hooker's study: “Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination timing and autism among young african american boys: a reanalysis of CDC data” stating: “The Editor and Publisher regretfully retract the article [1] as there were undeclared competing interests on the part of the author which compromised the peer review process. Furthermore, post-publication peer review raised concerns about the validity of the methods and statistical analysis, therefore the Editors no longer have confidence in the soundness of the findings. We apologise to all affected parties for the inconvenience caused.“  (Emphasis added)   http://www.translationalneurodegeneration.com/content/3/1/22

Dr. Mark Geier has a number of business interests which are all predicated upon the disproved hypothesis that the vaccine preservative thiomersal causes ASDs. The corporate headquarters of ASD Centers, LLC (http://www.autismtreatmentclinics.com/), CoMed (http://mercury-freedrugs.org/) and Institute of Chronic Illnesses, Inc. (http://www.faqs.org/tax-exempt/MD/Institute-Of-Chronic-Illnesses-Inc.html) are located at a home owned by Mark Geier. David Geier, Janet Kern, James M. Love, Carmen G. Chaigneau and Lisa Sykes all hold various positions in these businesses/charities.  Additionally, Janet Kern is on the Board of Directors of Geir Bjørklund's Council for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (CONEM) which also has a strong focus on a mercury causation for autism. 

Mark Geier, David Geier, Janet Kern and Lisa Sykes are all involved with an elaborate grift to pay themselves for their own studies with monies from their own non-profit businesses as evidenced from their funding declaration for this study and several other studies along with three years of tax returns, 2011, 2012 and 2013 so far.  David Geier is conveniently president of the appropriately-named MedCon which pays him handsomely.  The Geier incestuous network of grifters includes appointing themselves to their own Institutional Review Board (IRB) which is supposed to oversee research and ensure ethics compliance via independent reviewers.  The Geiers and their business partners established a veritable fox-guarding-the-hen-house operation for themselves.   Kathleen Seidel meticulously catalogued the Geiers' et al.'s flouting of IRB regulations along with plagiarism, dodgy science and more egregious examples of failure to disclose conflicts of interest.  Incidentally, Ms. Seidel had to file an FOIA request to obtain the Geiers' IRB declaration.  I guess the Geiers et al. feel as though transparency is just for everyone else.

Dr. Mark Geier has had his license to practise medicine either revoked or suspended in all states where he used to hold licenses. These actions were based upon the serious charges initially investigated by the State of Maryland's Board of Physicians (https://www.mbp.state.md.us/bpqapp/Orders/D2425004.271.PDF): “The Board determined that the physician’s conduct constituted a substantial likelihood of a risk of serious harm to the public health, safety and welfare based on the physician’s experimental treatment of autistic children with Lupron.” Dr. Geier's son David Geier was charged with practising medicine without a license and fined $10,000 (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-05/news/ct-met-autism-doctor-20121106_1_autism-doctor-david-geier-mark-geier). 

Richard Deth sits on the Board of the National Autism Association which is a vaccine-causation group and heavily involved with bogus "biomedical treatments/cures" for autism.  He was more than "involved in vaccine/biologic litigation", he was a paid "expert" for the petitioners for the Omnibus Autism Proceeding and a really bad one at that.

Dr. Richard Deth teaches pharmacology at Northeastern University. He was offered by the plaintiffs as an expert in the areas of physiology, neuropharmacology and the effects of thimerosal in the human brain. Dr. Deth is clearly qualified to testify as an expert witness in the areas of physiology and neuropharmacology. However, there is no recognized field of science in the third proposed area of expertise, namely "the effects of thimerosal in the human brain."

Dr. Deth offered the opinion that exposure to mercury for thimerosal-containing vaccines causes autism, based on a molecular theory that he developed through his in vitro studies. Questions about the effect mercury has in the human brain necessarily come within the ambit of the field of toxicology. These questions, including any opinions about the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and the excretion of thimerosal or mercury all involve issues of toxicology.

Further, Dr. Deth is neither an epidemiologist, a neurologist nor a geneticist. That — vel non — would not operate to preclude his testimony. However, he has never taken any courses in epidemiology, has published no papers in any epidemiological journal, and is not a member of any epidemiological societies. He relies on an epidemiology paper published by Dr. Geier as support for his opinions. (20) Further, he relies on several papers about the neurology of autism. He is not a medical doctor and is not an expert in the field of pediatric neurology. Lastly, although he relies on various studies in the field of genetics, he does not have a degree in genetics nor is he a member of any professional genetics organizations or societies. Accordingly, in light of his expressed reliance on Dr. Geier's studies (that the Court has addressed at pp. 24-38 of this Opinion), this Court finds that he lacks a sufficient factual basis to support his testimony.

Boyd Haley is President and CEO of CTI Science (the website is non-existent now) and he licensed OSR#1 developed for chelating industrial mining sludge.  He re-branded OSR#1 as a "supplement" for chelating autistic children which made millions of dollars before the FDA sent him a warning letter to cease marketing of OSR#1 as a dietary supplement.  Boyd Haley continued to sell OSR#1 for a period of time after that enjoying a ridiculous mark up on it. He is currently attempting to resurrect OSR#1 with clinical trials operating under the business name EmeraMed and renaming OSR#1, Irminix. He has a vested financial interest in flogging the failed mercury-causation of autism.  He is also a member of Geir Bjørklund's fancifully-named Council for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine (CONEM).

Geir Bjørklund and Jim Love appear to be just another dodgy scientist and sleazy lawyer respectively getting in on the mercury grift that has successfully scared parents into buying shonky products to treat "heavy metal" toxicity in their autistic children and legal services for "mercury injuries".

To say that the authors' declared conflicts of interest is lacking is an understatement.  Every single one has a financial and personal stake in perpetuating the myth that thiomersal causes autism and/or mercury is responsible for mythical diseases.  And not one of these authors declared their actual conflicts of interest while writing about others' conflicts of interest.  Allowing a "review" such as this, by these authors to be published in an ethics journal is beyond the pale and even worse to let it remain in the public domain.

ETA 29.10.15: Thanks to comments by capnkrunch and Chris Preston who provided me with more accurate information on the study authors, I have made corrections within the body of the text.  I really appreciate the comments that keep this blog as accurate as possible.

ETA 1.11.15: Updated to include more information supplied to me by the excellent Kathleen Seidel and Matt Carey.  Thank you.

Update 12.14.17: Retraction Watch issued a post about the retraction and subsequent replacement of this study which includes some correction of material errors and a more accurate conflict of interest statement.  The retraction notice states:

Based on an assessment by the Editors, the Conflict of Interest statement of this article is inadequate because it fails to disclose conflicts of interest in addition to the declaration that “the authors have been involved in vaccine/biologic litigation.” In particular, Janet Kern is a board member of CONEM (Council for Nutritional and Environmental Medicine) and Geir Bjorklund is that organization’s founder and President. Mark Geier and David Geier do work under the auspices of the non-profit Institute for Chronic Illnesses, Inc. Lisa Sykes, Mark Geier and David Geier are officers of the Coalition for Mercury-free Drugs (CoMeD, Inc). Richard Deth is on the scientific advisory board of the National Autism Association. Brian Hooker is on the board of Focus for Health. James Love has been involved in amalgam litigation. Boyd Haley is involved in the development of a mercury-chelating agent. Some of the authors have a personal as well as a professional interest in autism. In addition, some authors are or have been involved in litigation related to vaccines and autism.
Furthermore, the article itself contains a number of errors, and mistakes of various types that raise concerns about the validity of the conclusion. As a result, this article is being retracted by the editors without the agreement of the authors. The online version of this article contains the full text of the retracted article as electronic supplementary material.

Quack and Burn

There has been interesting and delightful news on the anti-vaxx quack front this past week.  Most recently Dr. Mark Geier of the ghoulish duo, Mark R. Geier and pretend doctor David Geier, has had his license to practise medicine revoked in Missouri and has had his medical license suspended indefinitely in Illinois.  The last remaining state, Hawaii where Mark Geier still holds a valid license has filed a complaint against him.  Todd W. of Harpocrates Speaks has a very nice catalogue of the Geiers' offences.  While the Geiers' creepy clinics are still in operation, one with Mayor Eisenstein of Homefirst, and in spite of their claim, "We are going to open [clinics] everywhere," the loss of all of Mark Geier's licenses to practise medicine and pending action in the one remaining state will ensure that this isn't going to happen.

Another quack, Andrew Wakefield is once again "wanking for coins."  Wakefield and his fawning disciples have hoisted yet another fund-raising scheme for their St. Andy.  This one as the hilariously named, Academic Integrity Fund.  And for $750 one can enjoy dining with the Wakefields AT THEIR TABLE or $250 for being in the same room as the Wakefields to eat tacos and drink frozen margaritas (with cheap house tequila no doubt) at a chain restaurant.

I can't quite seem to figure out what the Academic Integrity Fund funds other than paying for a couple of overwrought, masturbatory blog posts by Wakefield and a couple of others.  Sadly, there are people with more money than brains so he should pull in some payola for his latest venture.

Wakefield has his own Legal Justice Fund which is really just a façade for fawning acolytes to show his fighting spirit against the evil Brian Deer and BMJ.  I doubt his acolytes will even bother to question why there are scores of pages missing from Mr. Deer's testimony and just keep throwing their money at Wakefield.

And whatever happened to his Strategic Autism Initiative (SAI)?  Yet another money suck he created and in his words:

“I have no intention of going away,” he said. “I have set up a new research initiative, the Strategic Autism Initiative, whose aim is to do the science on the environmental causes of autism that the federal agencies want to run away from.”

Not a single study nor publication nor anything to do with autism research has emerged from this so-called non-profit organisation.  It appears as though the SAI has done nothing but fund a few trips for Wakefield to frighten the Minnesota Somali community off of getting the MMR jab for their children and making an empty promise to conduct a study of their autism prevalence.  I guess he can claim partial success by facilitating a measles outbreak in the Minnesota Somali community.

This latest scam is at least the closest thing to just coming right out and saying, "pay me for nothing suckers," than his past "fund-raising" schemes.  And sadly, they will.

Mark Geier's license now also *revoked* in Washington

Just a quick happy not that Washington has now also revoked Mark Geier's license to practise medicine, after Indiana and Maryland (see Harpocrates Speaks). Children in Missouri, Ilinois and Hawaii are still not safe - but I am sure it is just a matter of time until their boards catch up.

"QUACK" says the Quack, the Board says "NEIGH" - it's quiet now, what do you say?

with apologies to Sandra Boynton

On 22 August 2012, the Maryland State Board of Physicians revoked Mark R. Geier's license to practise Medicine (dare I say "finally"?). This follows almost a year of legal proceedings (covered very well by Todd W. at Harpocrates Speaks, here, and here and by Kathleen Seidel at Neurodiversity.com, here and here) - visually:

On September 15, 2011, the Board charged Mark R. Geier, M.D., with numerous violations of the Medical Practice Act, including: (1) unprofessional conduct in the practice of medicine; (2) willfully making or filing a false report or record in the practice of medicine; (3) willfully failing to file or record any medical report as required under law; (4) practicing medicine with an unauthorized person or aiding an unauthorized person in the practice of medicine; (5) grossly overutilizing health care services; (6) failing to meet appropriate standards for the provision of quality medical care; and (7) failing to keep adequate medical records, under Md. Health Occ. Code Ann. § 14-404(a) (3) (ii), (11), (12), (18), (19), (22), (40), respectively. 

A five-day evidentiary hearing was held before an Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") ofthe Office of Administrative Hearings in December of 2011. On March 13, 2012, the ALJ issued a Proposed Decision finding that Dr. Geier had violated numerous provisions of the Medical Practice Act and recommending that his license be revoked. Exceptions and responses were filed by both parties. An oral exceptions hearing was held before the full Board on May 23, 2012. This Final Decision and Order is the Board's final administrative decision in this case.

Carole J. Catalfo, the Executive Director of the Maryland State Board of Physicians has had it. Her ruling leaves nothing open to interpretations - she finds (footnotes removed):

(1) Dr. Geier failed to meet basic medical standards for evaluating patients and conducting medical examinations and keeping adequate records of treatments and diagnoses. He failed to conduct an adequate initial evaluation of any of these patients and failed to make an adequate record of an examination for any of these patients. He began treatment often without sufficient information about the patients' physical condition. In many cases, [Dr. Geier] had no information at all about the Patients' physical condition.,

This is consistent with the details that came out in the case of Dr Geier's son David Geier practising Medicine without a license (Justthevax passim). She further finds:

(2) Dr. Geier treated patients with Lupron, a medication that is not approved by the FDA in the absence of precocious puberty. He did not, however, perform an adequate examination to determine whether these patients had precocious puberty, or the cause of these patients' symptoms. ../.
(3) Based on his theory that Lupron therapy is appropriate in certain situations in which its administration is not approved by the FDA or the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Geier purported to treat patients who met his profile with Lupron. With the exception of Patient E, however, none of these patients met even Dr. Geier's profile for Lupron therapy.

This abhorrent practise to "diagnose" any child with "precocious puberty" irrespective of age and physical evidence to be able to prescribe Lupron, a strong hormone modulator, which essentially equals chemical castration is part of Team Geier's proprietary theory. They postulate (I paraphrase - see père et fils Geier here) that excessive testosterone binds mercury from vaccines in the body/brain, and that the administration of Lupron will release the mercury which can than be chelated. That is complete gobbledygook of course, but unfortunately, far too many parents believed them (read Kathleen Seidel's outstanding series on "The Lupron Protocol") - the Geiers claimed to have treated more than fifty children already in 2006. Consequently, following Lupron prescription:

(4) Dr. Geier prescribed chelation therapy to patients who failed to display the need for chelation. He began this therapy without documenting a reason for the treatment and without adequate documented informed consent. He violated the standard of quality care by so doing. He also violated the standard of quality care by prescribing for patients the drug DMPS, a drug not approved for any use in the United States.

(5) Dr. Geier provided a consent form to the parent of Patient I that named an FDAapproved drug and which falsely stated that it was to be used in the chelation treatment when another drug, DMPS, which was not FDA-approved, was to be used (and in fact was used) in the chelation treatment. 

It gets worse:

(6) After prescribing these treatments without an adequate previous medical examination and without adequate informed consent, Dr. Geier then failed to adequately monitor whether these treatments were working.

"Experimental" treatments on human patients will have to undergo review by an institutional review board, which is supposed to advise and control the physicians. The Geiers' review board was made up of family and friends:

(7) Dr. Geier provided drug therapy to Patient I according to a protocol not approved by the FDA after telling the parent that his protocol was approved by an Institutional Review Board, when in fact the Institutional Review Board consisted entirely of persons affiliated with his practice and did not meet the requirements of federal or state law.

The court further finds that Dr Geier had parents sign an "informed consent" form that named the wrong drug (FDA licensed) to be applied, while an unlicensed drug ended up being used on their children (8). He inflated his credentials, claiming an American Board of Medical Specialties certification he did not have (9). The Board also finds that the record keeping of Dr. Geier was too poor to even be suitable for assessing patient progress. Nevertheless, he made decisions to continue or alter medication (10). Dr. Geier falsely made a diagnosis of precocious puberty in patients who did not have this condition and he did not perform the necessary medical examinations to be able to make this diagnosis (11). 

It appears that Mark Geier had objections to Dr. Grossman as an expert witness, saying that she was not a "true peer". Given her impressive list of qualifications, I would almost tend to agree with that notion - the court states:

Dr. Grossman is board certified in pediatrics and developmental-behavioral pediatrics and has been an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, the Director of the Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics Fellowship Program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the head of the Division of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics at that institution. She has also held many other positions of great responsibility in her 35-year career in pediatrics. She testified knowledgeably about the standard of care applicable to pediatric patients in general and to these patients in particular. The Board is satisfied that she was appropriately admitted as an expert in this case.

I felt like hugging Carole Catalfo for the following statement:

The fact that she may not have been familiar with the details of some of Dr. Geier's idiosyncratic theories, theories that appear to be supported in large part by literature that he or his son created and which have been rejected to some extent by the Institutes of Medicine of the National Academy of Science, does not detract from the weight of her testimony about the quality of the actual medical treatment provided to these patients, in the Board's opinion.

True that! The deconstruction of Mark Geier continues, as Dr Catalfo observes:

Dr. Geier, however, is not a "trained clinician." He completed only a one-year residency in obstetrics and gynecology, has no formal specialized training in the treatment of autism, and is not Board certified in any medical specialty.

The board also had few good words about the statements of Dr. Jerry Kartzinel (if the name rings a bell that is because you have seen him on this with Andy Wakefield):

The Board also notes that Dr. Kartzinel's testimony on the adequacy of Dr. Geier's physical examinations of these patients was particularly unpersuasive. ../..

He testified that a physical examination of the patients is highly overrated (Tr. 200) and that the physician "generally ... can bide by his eye" (Tr. 148-49) and just try to "get a gestalt," and that it is not even necessary for the physician to document that "gestalt" in the medical record. (Tr. 182) It is sufficient for the physician then to "step back and say, did I get a clinical response that everybody is thrilled with, or was it a swing and a miss," according to Dr. Kartzinel. (Tr. 155) In the Board's opinion, what Dr. Kartzinel describes as an acceptable medical examination and mode of treatment is not acceptable at all, and it is questionable as to whether this conduct can even be described as "medical."

Traurige Gestalt* is more like it. The hubris that those phrases reveal is not untypical amongst the "brave maverick doctors".

In their ruling, the State Medical Board do not speak to the allegation that Dr. Mark Geier let his unqualified son, David, practise Medicine. The Board state that this is being dealt with elsewhere (it has been) and that:

The Board will not make a decision in this case on this same factual issue based upon the less complete record made in this case. In light of the egregious violations of the standard of quality care and the deliberate unprofessional conduct set out in the numbered facts recited above, a decision as to whether Dr. Mark Geier also allowed Mr. David Geier to practice medicine without a license would have no effect on the sanction that the Board would impose on Dr. Mark Geier.

Read the Sanction in full, very slowly, word by word to understand that these proceedings dealt with a high number of unambiguous violations and there is really no room for a "misunderstanding" of what happened:

The ALJ commented that Dr. Geier abused the trust that these patients' families placed in him. "By dissembling, misrepresenting, failing to see his patients for months and years before treating them, applying a protocol-based treatment to children who do not fit the protocol, using non-FDA-approved drugs without fully informed consent, and for all of the other violations found and discussed in this Proposed Decision, he abused that trust. I agree with the State that these actions betray the relationship of a physician to a vulnerable child and his desperate parents."
The Board agrees.
The ALJ proposed that the Board revoke Dr. Geier's license. Dr. Geier has displayed in this case an almost total disregard of basic medical and ethical standards by treating patients without properly examining or diagnosing them, continuing treatment without properly evaluating its effectiveness, and providing "informed consent" forms that were misleading and in at least one case blatantly false. He provided treatments supposedly according to an investigational protocol, but the investigation was approved only by a sham Institutional Review Board, and he applied protocols to patients who did not fit his own profile. He provided treatment by a drug not approved for use in this country while informing parents that a different drug would be used. His actions toward his patients were not those of an honest and competent physician, nor do they appear to be those of an objective and ethical researcher. Dr. Geier made little use of those methodologies that distinguish the practice of medicine as a profession. At the same time, he profited greatly from the minimal efforts he made for these patients. In plain words, Dr. Geier exploited these patients under the guise of providing competent medical treatment. Such a use of a medical license is anathema to the Board. The Board has no hesitation in revoking his medical license.

Which they do:

What do I say? For the moment, I remain very quiet and listen to the weeeeeee sound that the Geiers' descent makes - they have been falling for a while and they have not hit rock bottom yet. It is likely that the repeated practising Medicine without a license and the number of other behaviours that led to this license revocation will have further consequences (like fines or even jail time). I also think that some insurance companies might want to have another look at the diagnosis and prescription practise of Dr Geier. Some parents (especially if they had to pay out of pocket) might want their money back.

Most of all though, as a parent, I am relieved that vulnerable children are safe from unlicensed drugs in uncontrolled treatment of undiagnosed conditions based on untrue hypotheses. My hope is that those who were treated with Lupron will not have sustained permanent damage and will find trained specialists to take care of their (hormonal and other) needs.

*sad figure

Hat tip to Stephen Barrett, MD

ETA: now also very nicely covered by Todd W. on Harpocrates Speaks

Bad month for the Geiers: Mark R. Geier's medical license suspended in Florida

On 3 August 2012, the Florida Board of Medicine decided (according to their preliminary minutes, full decision to be linked when it is published now added) that Mark Robin Geier is: to pay a $1000 dollar fine, the costs of the procedure, and not to practice in Florida until he petitions for reinstatement and appears before the Probation Committee. This follows a previous complaint by the Florida Dept of Health which Todd W. explained back in March.

13  Allegations of the Administrative Complaint: Violation of Florida Statutes s. 458.331(1)(b), FS
14  (2010) – Having a license or the authority to practice medicine revoked, suspended, or otherwise
15  acted against, including the denial of licensure, by the licensing authority of any jurisdiction,
16  including its agencies or subdivisions; s. 458.331(1)(kk), FS (2010) – Failing to report to the
17  board, in writing, within 30 days if action as defined in paragraph (b) has been taken against
18  one’s license to practice medicine in another state, territory, or country; and s. 458.331(1)(w), FS
19  (2010) – Delegating professional responsibilities to a person when the licensee delegating such
20  responsibilities knows or has reason to know that such person is not qualified by training,
21  experience, or licensure to perform them.  

I must admit a certain amount of relief at the sight of the "suspended" watermarks behind Mark Geier's license on the Florida Dept of Health's Practitioner Profile. It means that children in one more State are safe from unproven autism "therapies".

Time to update that map, Todd...

ETA: Todd W. has a description of the Florida proceedings and updates from Indiana and Maryland.