Ban for GP with ‘unhealthy obsession’ with lasers
A long-serving GP who admitted to having an “unhealthy obsession” with lasers has had his registration canceled by a court.
Last year, the Civil and Administrative Tribunal of South Australia heard that Adelaide-based GP Mark Rogers had repeatedly encouraged patients to seek low-level laser therapy (LLLT) for a decade. — Although this is not allowed.
Seven years ago Dr. Rogers was banned from offering the treatment to his patients after it was revealed that he had made “misleading” statements about the treatment’s abilities.
But the court found he “deliberately and blatantly disregarded” this ban by continuing to push patients into treatment.
Dr Rogers was prosecuted by the Medical Board of Australia and six allegations of misconduct were made against him.
These were:
1) failure to provide good patient care
2) not disclosing potential conflicts of interest
3) financial and business relations with a patient
4) providing false or misleading information
5) violating the commitment given to the board of directors
6) Violation of registration condition
The court, Dr. It upheld each of the six allegations against Rogers, including the allegation that he provided “inadequate treatment and inappropriate advice” when recommending laser treatment.
Previously Dr Rogers caused controversy by claiming the therapy could be used to cure Alzheimer’s; he later admitted this was wrong.
But after his last trial, he was disqualified from the practice and his career of more than 30 years came to an abrupt halt for 18 months.
The court’s findings are as follows: “Defendant [Dr Rogers] He says he finds it difficult not to talk about the treatment with the patients complained of because of his unhealthy obsession with LLLT, which is ‘almost delusional’.
“The defendant states in both his statement and evidence that he now hates LLLT and regrets being introduced to him.”
He added: “Whilst we accept that Dr Rogers acknowledged his behaviour, it cannot be ruled out that he was in some sense forced to comply by these proceedings against the background of previous disciplinary decisions.
“In our assessment of him during his statement, we do not consider that he has developed sufficient and frank insight into his conduct.”
LLLT, also known as cold laser therapy, is a non-invasive treatment that utilizes low-intensity infrared light, often used for pain management or reducing inflammation.
However, it is considered controversial in mainstream medicine, as some studies show little difference between the therapy and placebo.
However, Dr. Controversy over Rogers’ recommendation of the treatment was exacerbated by his personal interests, creating a conflict of interest.
The court panel added: “We impose sanctions by carefully evaluating all the evidence before us.
“We believe that by doing this, the public will be properly protected, faith in the medical profession can be restored and a very strong message will be sent to the medical profession, in particular that dishonest behavior towards health regulators and failure to comply with the orders of the disciplinary tribunal will not be tolerated and will be met with harsh sanctions.”
According to the terms of the ban, Dr. Rogers’ registration as a medical doctor was canceled and he was barred from reapplying for 18 months.
