Thursday, October 15, 2015

Can Medical Knowledge Be Copyrighted?

A patient with a history of syncope, first degree AV block with evidence of a bundle branch block and 2:1 block on telemetry is examined and 1:1 conduction ensues with carotid massage. You recommend a pacemaker because you understand the electrophysiologic principle of "gap phenomenon" but realize that you had a question that looked just like that on a prior cardiac electrophysiology medical board examination. You recall that just prior to that examination, you electronically signed a statement that contained something like the following contract language just before the computerized examination started (but recall you were never given a copy of that mystical agreement):
I understand that all ABIM materials are protected by the federal Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101, et seq. I further understand that ABIM examinations are trade secrets and are the property of ABIM. Access to all such materials, as further detailed below, is strictly conditioned upon agreement to abide by ABIM's rights under the Copyright Act and to maintain examination confidentiality.

I understand that ABIM examinations are confidential, in addition to being protected by federal copyright and trade secret laws. I agree that I will not copy, reproduce, adapt, disclose, solicit, use, review, consult or transmit ABIM examinations, in whole or in part, before or after taking my examination, by any means now known or hereafter invented. I further agree that I will not reconstruct examination content from memory, by dictation, or by any other means or otherwise discuss examination content with others. I further acknowledge that disclosure or any other use of ABIM examination content constitutes professional misconduct and may expose me to criminal as well as civil liability, and may also result in ABIM's imposition of penalties against me, including but not limited to, invalidation of examination results, exclusion from future examinations, suspension, revocation of certification, and other sanctions.

Can you divulge this principle of gap phenomenon (and a similar example of this phenomenon) that once appeared in an almost identical way on your board examination to your residents?

According the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) and the above agreement, it would seem that I cannot.

But is such a medical principle and my personal example displayed on this blog truly copyrightable by the ABIM?

According to prior court decisions, under the principle of the "merger doctrine" my example does not violate the Copyright Act. In fact, according to Mazer v. Stein, 347 U.S. 201, 217 (1954), the Supreme Court stated "Unlike a patent, a copyright gives no exclusive right to the art disclosed; protection is given only to the expression of the idea—not the idea itself." This protects my First Amendments' free speech right and the fact that this same principle was shown to me years before by my mentor, Mel Scheinman, MD at the University of California, San Francisco when I trained as a fellow in cardiac electrophysiology.

To be clear, the disclosure of an exact replica of a board question and its detractors (wrong answers) might be subject to a copyright dispute, but it is clear that simply mentioning to residents that you saw a "similar question" on your specialty board examination and providing an example to your residents and fellows does not compromise your ability instruct your residents about such an important electrophysiologic principle as "gap phenomenon." In actuality, it is hard to copyright medical information that is widely available in the medical literature.

But this has not deterred the ABIM from continuing its legal battles against physicians who they claim may have shared information about their certifying examination question content.

More Suits Against Physicians Filed

Currently, the ABIM is continuing to sue physicians for possible Copyright Act infringement of their secure board examinations from participants in the Arora Board Review course given in 2009 (!), this time a young internal medicine physician from Puerto Rico (the full text of this suit can be viewed here). While this trial has yet to be heard, it will be interesting to see if the ABIM's Copyright Act infringement claims have merit. The suit is interesting because it gives a detailed accounting of the ABIM's test creation methods and the damages they hope to recover. I encourage my physician readers to review the suit.

Even more interesting to me, however, is the answer to the claims made in the ABIM's suit by the defendant and the countersuit filed against them (seen here). The claims of the "ABIM Individuals' Illicit Conduct" (beginning on page 22) are important to review, for if they are found to be true, they offer insight into the extent ABIM will go to protect their intellectual property and the damages they inflict of physicians that might be wrongly accused, including the use of a "spy," claims fo the violation of a "Pledge of Honesty" that the defendant never saw, public claims that he was "unethical and unprofessional," and having only 10 days before every medical licensing board in his jurisdiction would be notified of the ABIM's decision, leaving (in my view) no opportunity for due process.

These are extremely important issues for physicians to understand as the "restructuring" of the ABIM continues in light of the ABIM getting it "wrong" and the financial revelations and deceptive disclosure practices of the ABIM raised on this blog and elsewhere.  If the court finds in favor of the defendant in many of the claims made by him, I have a feeling there will be many more suits against the ABIM to follow.

It also raises the very real possibility that the ABIM Foundation was not created as a means to define and promote "medical professionalism," but rather to serve as a legal defense fund for the ABIM as they protect their monopoly interest in the physician specialty accreditation process.

-Wes


62 comments:

Lisa said...

Aww, that is so cute when men over fifty can still be as naive as young children.

First, you should be aware that you're being explicitly targeted for replacement under the guise of keeping your medical education up to date.

Second, you need to understand this new model of doing business. I won't go into detail when you can visit any Motel6 in your area and ask any homeless white American seasoned professional of information technology to elaborate. There is a constant cycle of certification exams to 'stay current' and hopefully make a living, even though you're going to be replaced with H-1B workers soon anyway.

The restructuring of the ABIM likely has little to do with what is good for medicine. It is a money maker, but also a strategic instrument of targeting the undesirable in health care to substantially shift the demographics of the profession as a next wave of Social Justice.

Many people like the ideal of all this health care reform, but it's not as simple as, 'Oh goody, now we're finally helping those who need it most.' Something else is going on. Your demographic might be the best equipped to handle fighting the good fight to protect the future of medicine and this country--while you're also in the best position to walk away and do something else. But if you have children or grandchildren, and you want to give them some kind of future, then you need to fight the current direction of 'restructuring'.

There have been some cultural problems in medicine for years; that's any profession. But having an agenda-based do-over--and mind you that ABIM is lead by someone with a solid foundation in Philosophy not even a STEM undergrad--there is a lot going on. You're worn down with administrative work in the hope that you might not realize all that's gone wrong until it's too late. This is a total paradigm shift being rolled out one little crazy piece of crap at a time. If you think you're just too old to fight this, then take a bubble bath and get over it because we need people to put up a fight.

It IS a big deal, your twitterfriend has warned you, Lisa30092

Anonymous said...



"ABIM clearly got it WRONG"....AGAIN !!

I'm sure the great, *underpaid* Lynn Langdon is driving this torture.

She will do to this MD what she did to Sarah Von Muller.

I have decided I've taken my last "secure" exam.

ABIM is a corrupt, lying, duplicitous, evil, unregulated cess-pool.

Regulatory capture at its finest said...

"The ABIM should shutter it's doors. It is an institution that has lost trust completely.

Reasons.

Decades of political and financial fraud. Repeated questionable money transfers - secretive. Cheating on IRS filings. Failure to report lobbying. Intentional domicile misstatements. Negligence, recklessness in fiduciary responsibilities .
Failure to properly inform the federal, state and local governments, remiss in exercising good faith communications with authorities, taxpayers, patients and physician-clients.

Running a political action committee pushing democratic party healthcare platforms - paying for it off the over-burdened backs of taxpayers and physicians.

Potential money laundering to pay for extraneous activities not in keeping with their job description, but conducted during normal hours of operation in Philadelphia's ABIM offices, Washington DC and elsewhere.

Reckless investment practices risking principal with momentum trading and stock jockeying to increase revenues and bottom-line profits in order to increase personal wealth of executives and political power.

Physicians and taxpayers demand an investigation."

Wes,

In the meantime who sets up the legal hotline to take the calls for the thousands of injured parties. They need counseling. Not unlike victims in any crime.
How can we help victims of the ABIM and its "Shadowy Foundation" - help get them started in the right direction to heal and recapture the life and money that was stolen.
The pain is incalculable.

I have spoken with several victims that the ABIM has persecuted mentioned above.

The forensics for the case are simple. The ABIM website address. That ever-changing pledge, which you will never be given a copy of because it dissolved after you signed it - signed under total duress.
And without any consumer protection rights being mentioned or a money back guarantee.
Choose a good lawyer for an individual or class action lawsuit against the ABIM.

Choose your forum. Don't let them do it for you.

Anonymous said...

What would it take for FBI or DOJ to investigate what is going on here with ABIM?

I feel as physicians we are fighting individually i.e david against goliath.



Siddhis program said...

On the Seizure of Private Property

Christine Cassel to the Civil Rights judge: Judge we must be quick and swift. We have to go in hard now.

CR Judge: Are you sure this can't wait until I have more time to study the issue.

Chris: Curtis, he is a flight risk. I tell you he is a Hindu. He has siddhis.

CR Judge. What's that? Siddhis?

Chris: I don't know that's why we have to go in now. They say he can fly.

Judge: Oh, I see, then. He's is a flight risk.

Chris: Yes, absolutely.

Judge: How long have you known him to be..

Chris: We have it all on video tape.

Judge: Did you get an order for that?

Chris: We did not need an order. Our cameras are on all time.

Judge: Say hi to Marjorie for me.

Chris: Will do? Gotta go now before that Hindu skips out of town.


Anonymous said...

abim board certification exam is having exact questions from mksap....HOW does that not come under their so called copy right violation. ACP review boards tells questions parallel to ABIM questions. ACP and ABIM , ABMS are actually in tacit CARTEL like existence, where each ebnefits each other. dr arora was hurting their business and may be his business hurted both acp and abim as more people were skirtting acp conferences and passing abim (thus not paying exam taking fees)...once it started actual monetary damge to both these scam ridden bodies they showed their true color.. after all how long can a thieve keep hiding.. greed got exposed openly... !!

little more info, question setters get only 100 dollars per question. our colleges are setting questions tell that... we all also know that each questions run for decades.
stale questions from ABIM boards are testing the ever changing knoeldge in medicine. is nt thats why they started moc and isnt what they claim for MOC. my 10 cents that MOC questions will only change after paid questions that are created by industry people to be sold to abim are entered into their database. otherwise old stale nonsense of ABIM will be continu to be sold.
ABIM questions can be 90% anwered by reading 1250 page mksap for 2 months. other 10% are red herrings. all u need is good englsih reading since since the only thing which has changed over years in abim/USMLE exam is length of the question. keep on making the same question more complex...lol.. how can u change the symptoms of HTN or diabetes or their treatmetn?????
attending any course before the exam is the legal right any individual.
exam setter has responsibilty to ask fresh questions. it is ABIM prima facie mistake that it failed to change the questions after it was known that they r in market. it should be penalized for hurting the trust of doctors who it certifies.. it has no right to challenge the existence of courses which refuse to share their business with it..
each questions should be legally the property of the exam taker after exam is over since the questions has been paid for .. so that he or she can review and update his knowledge..
ABIM cant own any question. it is knowledge. once u pay for a piece of knowledge,it is sold.
ABMS model of fraud is so petty that is even difficult to imagine that this scam has run for so many decades.
i am sure that is time for ABMS to sleep.
as some one said. ..... change is the law of nature..


Hanging Curve said...

Chris Cassel Down Time

NQF Headquarters, Langley, VA, USA

Act I, Scene II

Chris: Bob, I really appreciate you flying all the way our here from...

Bob: You know I'm here for you anytime...

Chris: San Francisco. How was your flight?

Bob: Good, little bumpy, 'cause I reread a printout of my recent blog -

The ABIM Controversy: Where the Critics are Right, Where They’re Wrong, and Why I Feel the Need to Speak Out...

Chris: How dreadful. I'm really sorry for you...all those yah...

Bob: No, it was good to read my own words again...I could have done

Chris: better. Of course you could. You've got chutzpah even revisiting it! Just toss it in the trash. Delete that sophistry from your life. I've, been trying to teach you for years that the intellect, especially the impartial processes we try to inculcate when we are young adults is rubbish. Throw it all out. We can't incorporate all that Zen and Kantian stuff into any of what we do. We've got to be tougher or those docs will run all over...I mean it, Bob, if you ever wish to be the next...

Bob: CEO of the ABIM? I think I have no illusions about that after all the blogging out there. Not one good review of my...

Chris: searchlights flashing, swirling in every direction. Political defeat shining right on our red faces...and Trump...

Chris: like a deer in headlights. That's just how I feel too...

Geopolitical researcher: Hot or cold?

Chris: I'm sorry, what? Oh, tea. Hot, please. Just leave it...we're kinda bus...

Bob: The whole article was stupid and politically dumb. I left myself out there like a hanging curve ball...

Chris: just waiting to be smacked out of the park.

Speaking of homeruns, how's that stock of yours doing? I'm sort of flat to up on "Premier". What's that company you got involved with? What is it again, "Pep" or something like...I heard...

Bob: that's all right. I'm sure mergers and board seats are not the topics you called me here for.

Hanging Curve said...

NQF Headquarters, Langley, VA, USA

Act II, Scene I

Bob: So, what's ailing your mind this time?

Chris: Remember when Lynn, Rich and I went after Dr. Borealis, you know that...

Bob: Yoga master?

Chris: Yes, ever since we battered down the doors of the house of Ram, I've had...

Bob: Dream?

Chris: Not exactly. It's more like I feel like I'm being watched by his...

Bob: He had peaceful eyes...

Chris: that follow you...

Bob: everywhere, right?

Chris: Rich, told me the other day that we were completely wrong to do that stuff to him. We really f[inaudible]

Bob: up on that one. How so, Chris?

Chris: When we got to the door he welcomed us in, made us chai and gave us little sweets, while the marshals and our agents ransacked his house.

Bob: Wasn't he upset to the...

Chris: hilt. No, it's eerie like he was expecting us. Now I have the sense that something in him is in me and its creepy...

Bob: Halloween creepy or...

Chris: No its like being girl again and you feel that you are surrounded by...

Bob: prose dropping like leaves from the

Chris: sky. Yes, it's like being in the desert in New Mexico, you know the white sands and you feel that you are...

Bob: free?

Chris: You know we did get to pushy with that

Bob: Judge? You know we could have been

Chris: caught? What could they do to us? You know, when I was living in Oregon, we used to go out to the Columbia Gorge...

Bob: you mean the river?

Chris: You know Bob, maybe we got

Bob: everything wrong ...

Chris: about what? Are you reading my mind again?


* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Act II, Scene II

NQF Headquarters, Washington, DC. USA

Window is rain splashed with gray sky.

Bob arrives from San Francisco tired and a little flustered. Chris is napping in her chair, empty tea cup cold on her desk.

Bob: Chris, I'm here. How are you?

Chris: So glad to see you. I just had the strangest dream.

Bob: Who's that frozen face on your computer screen. Is that Elton John?

Chris: Yes, you were so hilarious. I just had Hillary over for a visit. I was showing her...

Bob: Las Vegas? Mandalay Bay? How could you embarrass me like that, Chris!

Chris: Hillary, Trudy and Judy loved it too. Not to worry, Bobby.

Bob: So, you talked with HRC, everything

Chris: is still on.

Anonymous said...

isnt it true that what ever is copyrighted has to be submitted to the National library of congress first and then it becomes a public property.. although no can sell it but everyone can see or access the public information..

that is what i figured out when i copyrighted my spouses novel..of copyright.gov ???

Anonymous said...

Btw, I am © protected for everything I ever wrote or said.
Or will ever say or write in the future.

R U?

All © subject to gov. approval.
I keep up do you?

Question: When the ABIM was pursuing Dr. Arora 2009 and in the "discovery process" found thousands of you (shizam!)they let their registration lapse with the state of Iowa. They became administratively dissolved.
what happened to their copyrights while they were defunct. Shh!

gdn ltft ctn jn said...

There's a house on a hill
By a worn down, weathered old mill
In the valley below where the river winds
There's no such thing as bad times

For the ABIM and their Cassel on the Hill

Courtesyofchoosingwisely.smart said...

You say you got a real solution
Well, you know
We'd all love to see the plan
You ask me for a contribution
Well, you know
We're all doing what we can
But if you want money
For people with minds that hate
All I can tell is brother you have to wait
Don't you know it's gonna be all right?
All right, all right
You say you'll change the constitution
Well, you know
We all want to change your head
You tell me it's the institution
Well, you know
You better free you mind instead


CultBusters said...

Is the ABIM a cult?

The definition of a cult is:
an organization that is fairly easy to join,
but impossible to leave.

Phone lines with trained counselors are waiting to help.
Call 1-888-MOC-HELP

If you get an out of service area message, please seek the council of a skillful, well connected legal firm in your area.

If you eventually sue the cult, we highly recommend you retain one or two ACLU (or other) attorneys to watch over the legal process and to adjudicate the fairness of your claim - should you claim right to sue them.

In some cases we recommend an attorney just to watch over the legal process and to evaluate with every legal step and tactic the competency and loyalty of your chosen attorney or team of attorneys.

In our experience cult leaders are clever and will try to persuade you to stay with clever words which prey on your innate goodness and intellectual passivity.
This conditioning also makes you easy prey for bad council and you may fall for ineffective or corrupt legal representation. Especially if the monetary award is great.

In some cases cults are so well connected and healed as to attempt to tamper with your attorney choices, i.e., who is "available" or they sometimes dictate who will be your actual lead attorney. Or who will be the presiding judge or magistrate.

Historical examples of the power of cults: Instances of pedophile cults
and their powerful ringleader have created conditions where you are forced to act or pledge yourself to them under extreme pressure and duress. It is impossible to escape these conditions if local, state and federal agents have been compromised. Many legislators became so disheartened that they were forced to leave public service. Documentary and news blackouts prevented the world from see the truth. That is what we often face at cult busters.

A little more about cults to recognize if you are involved with one.

Typically there are modest monetary requests at first. Over time these request turn into demands that become mandatory and more and more onerous over time. Cults tell you that you owe them money because you cannot possibly live without them or learn anything useful and relevant in your life or profession without them.

Please understand these monetary demands and disregard for your intelligence are illicit and immoral. These "psychological deceivers" who gain mastery over you usually have kind faces concealing that they are utterly false and inwardly despicable human beings. Kind-faced ones are groomed to keep the façade of appearances.

CultBreakers said...

Cults and Cult Leadership Exposed.

Other clues that you are in the clutches of a cult.

Often outside parties are involved to assist the cult by making extreme demands that become more and more stringent as time goes by. Techniques of utter humiliation and external reinforcement are employed that lead to a lessening of self esteem and eventual demise or breakdown of a normal healthy ego.

Cult breakers is here. This is where we come in.

Once you realize you have been taken, call us!

We can and will be an effective force in freeing you at no financial cost to you or your family.

Be assured that you can escape.

Most cult leaders are inwardly small and weak. Outwardly they utilize proprietary methods of attraction and control, which our educational system never prepared us for.

Cults often use the same crowd methods of manipulation as political regimes and corporations.

There is a story I wish to relate. It is about the strength of a cult member who dealt directly with some of the highest leaders in the clan who falsely claimed that cult member #xxxxxx broke a prime rule.

It was rule number one with them.

"Cash flow! Don't ever threaten to resist or test our well established financial empire and payment requirement, or do anything to harm our methods of proprietary control."

Call Cult Breakers. Again the number to call is 1-888-MOC-HELP.

Upon rare occasion when we inwardly feel the pain of a cult member or recent escapee form afar, we might call and leave a personal message with our direct line in an attempt to assist.

But it is up to you to seek the help of our highly trained cult breakers.

Our service is free and comes with an encryption service, de-conditioning counseling, quietude exercises and healing techniques. Our methods have been used for thousands of years.

How did we get into this service?

A horrible cult knocked on our door and took one of our family members, and currently holds captive a complete community of vulnerable physicians.

The cult is called the ABIM. Subsequently we studied this organization and its members thoroughly. We know how to be effective in helping you escape and getting your life back.

Our teams will not rest until this evil organization - and its partners - is rendered harmless. Join us in this fight.

Please wake up to what is being done to you; and resist it by seeking the legal council you need.

And call us.

ConcernedCitizen/Patient said...

2700 Club said...
Dear Ms. Christine Cassel:

cc Baron, Langdon, Holmboe

Request to remove all letters of concern dated 00/00/0000:

We did not witness any irregular behavior during, before or after our ABIM exam, which we sat for on 00/00/0000.

We have been totally unaware of any activity that could be deemed suspicious, and have had no prior knowledge of any investigation into questionable behavior as ABIM describes, until we received this written communication and subsequently looked at the pertinent news announcements on the ABIM website.

We can state with absolute certainty we have never compromised the integrity of the ABIM examination process, nor would it ever be in our interest to do so. Moreover, we refrain from sharing scores.

Professionalism and ethical conduct should be core principles at the heart of every physician’s practice and life. I believe this is the case today and will remain so in the future.

I believe my statements have adequately expressed my firm opposition to “test cheating” or so-called “brain dumping” in any form.

My response, as instructed by ABIM personnel, should satisfy removal of the letter of concern from my file.

Sincerely,

John/Jane Doe, MD
ABIM # XXXXXX


P.S.
Dear 2700 club:

Regarding the lawsuit ABIM versus Salas-Rushford over copyright infringement.

After reading the claim and counterclaim in this case, 2800 names are entered as possibly being partially liable for damages to the young Dr. Salas-Rushford if he is found to be guilty by a jury in Newark New, Jersey.

I take this to mean that the personal persecution of Dr. Salas Rushford along with the current unnecessary punitive lawsuit initiated by the ABIM's Lynn Langdon, Christine Cassel, Richard Baron, Eric Holmboe, Naomi O'Grady and others may open the door for the "2800 club" to sue the ABIM shortly.

If you received "letters of concern" or were sanctioned or sued for studying ABR materials and attending a board review course, it may be your chance to fight back and be compensated for the personal and emotional damages that the ABIM inflicted mercilessly on you and your families.

I would highly recommend that you seek legal council and pursue these damages which, if I am right, would award you the monetary settlement or court determined compensation (with legal fees) that you deserve.

There is sufficient evidence that the ABIM and its officers violated you in a politically-motivated financial scandal, which had nothing to do with you, but everything to do with the deviant and corrupt condition of the ABIM with Chris Cassel at the head.

Newsweek reporter Kurt Eichenwald, Medical media sources, Dr. Fisher, lawyers, legislators and others have been made aware of the financial misstatements, omissions, and misrepresentations of important material facts on their tax filings.
Folks say that the ABIM is corrupt and has been negligent and reckless in carrying out the responsibilities and obligations to the public, the organization, and physicians.

The pendulum has swung toward the truth and ABIM and its corrupt conflicted officers has been exposed.

Take up the legal sword against the ABIM and its officers and help our great nation clean it self up from the culture of corruption that inhabits so many of our important institutions.

Help clean up the corruption, dirty money and political machinations which are now apparent at the American Board of Internal Medicine. Take back something of what they have stolen from the public, the taxpayer, but foremost you.

Sincerely,
Concerned patient, and proud citizen of the United States of America.

Anonymous said...

Has ProPublica Gone to Sleep?

Where's the follow-up on the NQF, Chris Cassel and the ABIM with all the "media heat" recently and the spotlight on the ABIM - the ongoing investigation and scandal.

It is interesting to note that ProPublica's investigative trail of the ABIM's Christine K. Cassel and the NQF suddenly went cold. I find this odd. There has been nothing printed on the subject of the NQF since Cassel was forced to resign her board positions with Premier and Kaiser Permanente's Foundations.

Also, it is quite puzzling why these award winning journalist from major newspapers with dedicated intent to serve the public have made no mention of the ABIM scandal.
This also involves Christine Cassel.

Nothing. Have these PP journalists fallen short of what we would expect from some of the best journalists in the country?

Is it telling perhaps of an epidemic which plagues our nation? Can anyone please advise me on this, how to diagnose, is it a "black-out syndrome", which prevents us from discovering what is important for the reader and citizen/voter.

Or is an infestation of new reporters with other interests than the public and the voter? Public good. Where is it? Where is the focus? Has the editorial staff been infiltrated and compromised? That's what it looks and smells like.

Or has the editorial staff taken a permanent holiday or gone to sleep?

Perhaps a statement from ProPublica reassuring us that they will return sometime and report the news - all of it. In the game of monopoly you must go around the board many times to see who wins. Has the winner been determined after only three passes round the board. I suspect someone has ended the investigation on the NQF and does not want to touch the ABIM. Why?

Why is it that a single physician from Illinois, the land of Lincoln, offers more real and relevant news than the whole organization at ProPublica combined?

I'm as puzzled as the oyster.

Where shall I turn to find the real news?

References:
http://www.propublica.org/article/senator-cites-serious-concerns-demands-national-quality-forum-records
http://www.propublica.org/article/payments-to-ceo-raise-new-conflicts-at-top-health-quality-group
http://www.propublica.org/article/citing-distraction-quality-forum-ceo-resigns-board-seats
https://twitter.com/doctorwes?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
http://www.propublica.org/article/orthopedic-board-will-use-surgeon-scorecard-to-help-certify-docs

Regulatory Capture at Its Finest said...

Christine K Cassel Big-time Lobbying. Happy Days are Here Again?

NQF Lobbying ala mode. "Heap it on big. More than a dollop if you please."

The connections with the ABIM are obvious. ABIM drops the firm and the NQF picks up where they left off. The revolving door lobbying technique.

There is a paper trail. There is a money trail.

There is corruption in Cassel's "quality assurance house" on the Hill.

It is the NQF/ABMS money back guarantee to their stakeholders.

Prove me wrong!

http://soprweb.senate.gov/index.cfm?event=getFilingDetails&filingID=9d61d8d8-e9ae-44f0-add7-68e5d9231909&filingTypeID=1

Editorial Opinion said...

I admire ProPublica's Marshall Allen and Charles Ornstein.

I follow Ornstein's columns in ProPublica regularly. They provide news we would not otherwise hear.

It was exciting at first to read Charles Ornstein, but after thinking about the articles and their content, I realized there were objective data left out. What's more the average readers’ limited knowledge was not taken into consideration, i.e., putting yourself in the readers’ shoes. At the other end of the stick we have the professional medical community which balks at what they read.

Moreover the consequences of publishing what many consider to be one-sided incomplete articles was not thought through sufficiently. Reputation lags when relevant and useful data is left behind in the trunk. Get a "warrant to dig" and research more of the quality assurance executives who steal billions from taxpayers annually with their supercilious policy pronouncements.

The ABMS and particularly the ABIM come to mind.

Perhaps Ornstein’s articles need to be expanded by a team approach with more editorial input from authorities medical or otherwise that are not so partial in view and even appearing somewhat conflicted themselves.

Especially useful would be to hear more of the controversial nature of the subjects in question with highlights at least of the critical observations of others that will transport and guide us to a greater understanding of the subjects.

These three suggestions are not harsh criticisms of ProPublica's excellent news reporting, just a few suggestion on how to present a broader base of information, which will translate in the authors having a better understanding of the topic, and which will spare them the embarrassment of making mistakes and errors so frequently among their professional audience.

Articles will more often than not, if these ideas were incorporated, be more informative and possibly transformative for the average reader, and meet less criticism from the medical professionals who must live with the consequences of yet a another round of bad quality assurance measurements.

Finally we would like to have the editors ask the authors to get at the essence of the problem and present it in direct and simple terms that more people can understand. This may be difficult to do, especially for medical experts with a high degree of specialized training in many areas of medicine.

The above suggestions, which essentially means look before you leap, may transform many of the outcomes of the articles with less of the articles falling dead on arrival as soon as they are printed and digitally signed by the authors.

Editorial Opinion said...

Also, consider writing more about hot topics or people that many readers would love to read about.

Especially stories that seem to be abandoned or asked to be dropped.

Just like hospitalists, attendings, and residents who must sign out and transfer care of a patient to another physician, could ProPublica please systematize their internal process more by creating a transfer of coverage involving stories such as the "NQF series" and Chris Cassel's conflicts of interest, to another writer like Mr. Ornstein who seems to have a narrow assignment roster.

We believe this would be good for Charles in which to have a broader understanding of medical practice and many of the root causes of the serious problems in medicine.

If ProPublica is not planning or going to have any follow up research on the NQF and Christine Cassel, which I think would attract a wide audience, then please do the courtesy to your eager readers and pronounce the story dead.

Include Chris Cassel and her number 1 ranking in the health care/quality assurance field with a simple sentence in your obituary page.

"The interest in the number one professional medical politician is dead."

Thank you for listening to my suggestions.

We are all interested to see what has changed for the NQF and the ABIM other than Ms. Cassel finding other sources of amassing immense money and yet even more political power.

Writing what he thinks to be in the public's best interest, Charles has shown some severe gaps in his "series médicas" regarding his knowledge about the medical field and the severe struggles physicians face.

As the number one physician in the United States, interviewing Christine Cassel, MD will fill in many of Ornstein’s knowledge gaps. At the same time other insight may develop, which will clarify his thoughts on many topics, which are really all the same medical subject just called by different names.

"Wasting dollars and wasting lives."

Sample article.
http://www.propublica.org/article/orthopedic-board-will-use-surgeon-scorecard-to-help-certify-docs

Anonymous said...

Wes, great article, very provocative. Good discussion. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

"ACP and ABIM , ABMS are actually in tacit CARTEL like existence, where each benefits each other. Dr Arora was hurting their business and may be his business hurt both acp and abim as more people were skirting acp conferences and passing abim (thus not paying exam taking fees)...once it started, actual monetary damage to both these scam ridden bodies they showed their true color.. after all how long can a thieve keep hiding.. greed got exposed openly... !!"

My experience and research confirms what you say. I lived through it examining board review study materials and all the others for physicians who had no time to pick and choose, so I bought them all. I got copies of Arora's stuff too. I'm not a physician, but researcher. Study groups at residencies were innocuous and were essentially harmless, no threat to the ABIM or cash flow.

What affected the ABIM cash flow was the legal fees they wasted on hurting their physicians. Hurt themselves financially more than anyone ever could. It's like a story I heard when I was boy.

The King Who Was Prophesied to Be Dead in Seven Years to the Exact Minute.

There was king who was so paranoid of losing power that he built a tower in which to escape his fate. It was prophesized that he would die in seven years to the minute. As he got the tower finished and all his food and water in place, he noticed the time was rapidly approaching when he was prophesied to die. Then panic set in as he saw that sole open window after the last brick was laid in place beneath him.

Quickly, as he was alone now, he bricked over the only window just to be sure no intruder would get in and kill him. It was dark, so he lit a candle. Then the king realized, although too late, he had sealed his fate as he slowly suffocated to death. Powerless and to weak to move. Seven years to the minute.!

Anonymous said...

More-
I remember the Arora handouts. People copied them freely and often did not pay for them. He did not spy on his course attendees and sue them for infringement of his material. I know with absolute certainty seeing the process of sharing how an evil suspicious ABIM-like mind could mistake innocent studying of board-like questions and create a spying network calling for martial law and curfew among medicine populations.

The collateral damage astounded me and still does. I hear they are doing it again. Foolish Cassel and Baron. Reckless waste of clients' money and such personal pain inflicted on course attendees. Uncalled for. They were not hurting anyone even by mailing so called impressions of study materials that they came across or even the impressions of the test itself, which as far as I know was never proven to be the case. We had botched kangaroo court dramas and that is all.

The ABIM was remiss in not giving quality study materials in advance, which covered the test questions and subjects for free considering the hefty price of the test and all other costs involved. Tests should be property of tested parties immediately after taking it with the scores so you don't suffer and worry for months. Knowledge of what would be on the medicine test given in advance would be proper, but history shows that the test if scrutinized would not muster much support.

Officers of the ABIM should have been investigated, tried fairly and faced jail time and or severe fines for the fraud and heinous treatment of fellow human beings.
Who knows how they think of us lower class types! Sanctions and revocations should have been fairly given out to all the ABIM officers. Have you ever seen such a snake as CKC, MD. Plotted the ruination of the healthcare system. Did a great job harming everyone with her cost-cutting slash and burn corporate HMO nonsense.
Just like wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, we will be paying and paying for years with Cassel's social engineering.

Anybody have a calculator that can add the damage up in terms of lives harmed, morbidity as a way of life from substandard quality of care. In her model state of Oregon, the Medicare patients can't get squat. That's her social engineering for the Kaiser crowd. Should be in minimum security prison with visitation rights to her husband, but he can pay his own way and buy his own sheets. I hate billionaire freeloader bums like Cassel and her husband.

I would vote for anybody that would get rid of these people at the BS ABMS and BS ABEEM. Good riddance.

Even the non-profit NFL has more ethics than ABEEM.
The ABIM officers should be taken to the moon and compassionately dropped off.
Let them rule on the moon by testing each other to death in a dark crater outpost.

Please bring the peaceful dodo bird back to the Earth
and wooly mammoth in their stead.

Biju

Anonymous said...

Just sat for the Internal Medicine exam. This is my third time taking these exams and being in my fifties, I found this time to be physically exhausting. It was hard sitting there and using an ergonomically unfamiliar computer station for all that time. Two days later my back is still aching. For those of you waiting to hear how they improved the exam, I've got sad news: Its the same ol' same ol'.

I am REQUIRED to be board certified as a condition of employment. So I had to perform this irrelevent hoop jump for the third time in my life. I know I am a good physician, my employer constantly measures physician performance with dashboards and metrics. My performance is exactly where it needs to be. Yet, I have no idea if I passed this exam. Many questions get narrowed down to two possibilities and that is when in the real world I would reach for my ever-present resources, but not so in ABIM land. This exam does not measure physician competence or quality. It is out of touch with how physicians actually practice. It needs to go. ABIM needs to go. They got it wrong, again.

Anonymous said...

The ABIM's dominance over the practice of medicine may result in the dumbing-down of American internists.

There was a time when the ABIM certification meant something. It was a truly voluntary effort by an internist who sought an added mark of distinction above his or her peers. It suggested that a diplomate was an "internist's internist."

Then the ABIM figured out that it could generate a significant and sustainable revenue stream by making its exam the de facto criterion by which all internists are allowed to practice and earn a living. To protect and enhance this revenue stream (which, for various reasons, became very important to the ABIM), the ABIM became more like the SS and less like the thoughtful encourager of medical scholarship.

So what is scholarship? The American poet James Russell Lowell put it this way: "True scholarship consists in knowing not what things exist, but what they mean; it is not memory but judgement."

Historically, medical schools and residency programs stressed the importance of knowledge acquisition, synthesis, and the development and assessment of judgment. They created and controlled the curricula to support this process. Thus, they were best suited to determine which students were suited for the practice of medicine. But when the ABIM began flexing its muscles, residency programs relinquished this responsibility and handed over the reigns. Residency programs modified their curricula based on this new balance of power, teaching to the test. Residents now know from day one that their future hangs on the ABIM exam. Residency programs even tout their board scores and pass rates to attract new residents. Resident research projects? Who has time for that? Reading Harrison's or Cecil's or multiple medical journals each week just because they're interesting? Forget it. Remember the chump who read Harrison's cover to cover and flunked the boards? Bedside teaching by attendings? Not when the administration is hounding us to increase clinical RVUs. Thus, residency has become a three-year long board review course because who has time or incentive any more for real scholarship? Board review companies have figured this out, and they rake in millions each year from anxious residents and physicians who also understand the ABIM for what it is, not what it was.

Something sad has happened to internists because of this phenomenon. Witness the death of the physician scholar. To be sure, more of us now wear the ABIM seal of approval-- we all like to eat and keep a roof over our heads. But does having the diploma really mean that we are internists' internists? Will ABIM-dominated internal medicine produce great internists in the spirit of Osler or the pathologist William Henry Welch? Or will it produce average internists who dutifully Choose Wisely and route their patients to the real experts? I think we both know.

Anonymous said...

Wes, this was a masterful and concise summary of some important issues that physicians face in consideration of engaging in a lifelong relationship with the ABIM. Every certified and non-certified physician should read what you wrote and consider seeking legal council about continuing such a soured relationship.

Anonymous said...


I am pessimistic about any change coming from the ABIM through either a miraculous intervention or from the highly conflicted Assessment 2020 Taskforce.

NIL said...

There is very little that the ABIM has with which to spark in me any renewed interest. As a matter of fact I do not even wish to know any of the ABIM officers personally; that's how disgusted I am.

I have been studying the value of the ABIM going forward for the public as well.
The answer is nil.

Sour Gripes said...

They have soured the whole certification affair forever.

There is no affection on their part and I am dead toward them. They have killed the spirit of learning completely in most of the phycians that I know - or read online expressing opinions in journals.

Burma Shave said...

The husk no longer has value; it deposed the authority of its own mission, the voluntary nature of charity, and destroyed the priceless joy found in providing service to others.

Deviated said...

The ABIM is a dead organization concerned with profit and torturous inventions - no longer even recognizable as a humanitarian organization.

Nightmare said...

I don't understand how anyone in their right mind could sign such a threatening and binding agreement with anyone or any organization. The pride for life has turned into a nightmare for life.

Breach of Ethics said...

Do the ABIM executive committees think physicians are insane. Who would want to sign on with them? They have breached every ethical standard in the profession. Need I outline them again here.

Cushy Newspeak Jobs said...

Others have stated what they think.

Here's my dig into the cushy jobs they protect with their strange copyrighted newspeak. They lie bold facedly of their mission to the public while pushing political platforms for which they lobby behind docs backs.

Unconstitutional said...

The Killing of Democracy.

For that here's one final dig.

The ABIM's "Orient Express", appears loaded with passengers just waiting to "pounce and pound" on your body of propaganda, financial fraud, and endless lies in revenge.

This Train (R#) said...

This train, don't carry no drunken gamblers and riff raff, this train.

This train don't carry no ABIM, this train!

Here's what's great about America, and what keeps us all #.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6L5grLqkA0

DrWes said...

Very touched by this video. Thank you.

Anonymous said...


The Gall! The Nerve! Smoke! Mirrors!


NOT FOOLED! I STILL see the wolf beneath the sheepskin!


http://www.prleap.com/pr/240187/abim-foundation-and-council-of-medical

Anonymous said...

Dear Dr.Wes,
I do respect and appreciate very much all opinions ( so far only 36!) and comments posted on your site regarding outrages and criminal intrusion of ABIM in our professional and personal lives. "Wasting ( our) dollars and wasting (our ) lives"- this is quite short but very sharp definition of this " non-profit" private organization. I am the one whose life has been destroyed those few ABIM people.But what is most upsetting thing for me (ABIM board cert. foreign MD who escaped from oppressive communist country and had been enjoyed practicing medicine in free US for almost 20 years ) to witness that only few brave professionals are able to raise their voices against this indecency and other hundred thousands MD are completely mute, pretending that it is not their business and putting their heads in to the sand. We forgot that we are the one of the biggest and influential communities in this country and by the way we hold the right to vote and to be heard. Obviously $$$ mean a lot not only for Mrs.C. Cassel and her "business partners" but also a biggest gag for the majority of us. Ok, just wait for another few years and see what is going to happened to your pockets (I am not even talking about the our professional pride and respect from our dear patients - which will be gone too). Very sad.
P.S. Dr.W please free to proof/adjust my long sentiment ad lib.
P.SS As to me I am joining to a new alternative board ( still pretty small) for now and no more ABIM . I hope some other people will do the same.
Respectfully,
BB

What Do Physicians Say About the ABIM? said...

BB:
You and a lot of other physicians I have spoken with share similar sentiments.
As a journalist, I often ask one specific question to physicians after getting an earful.
I ask, "well, then what do you want in relation to the ABIM?"
They all invariably say the same thing. (I can't repeat the strongest words here.)

For the record, I have never gotten a positive or even a neutral response.

So what is it they say about the ABIM and what they want?

"ABIM is a horrible waste of time, and I just want them out of my life forever!"
I will refrain from repeating comments about the executives and their scandalous activities and attempts to cover-up.

The Dirt on the ABIM said...

I just looked up the performer Sister Rosetta shared above on Wikipedia.

Rosetta Tharpe. The Mother of Gospel/Rock-n-roll. She influenced many of the top artists who heard her. Presley, Cash, the list is too long.

I'd like to get on her train and stop supporting the ABIM gravy train.

This Train Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6L5grLqkA0

Anyone who knows what the ABIM has done over the past decades behind everyone's backs will relate to Rosetta's words.

Does the ABIM know what they've done to ruin their reputation and at the same time diminish the quality of care, plus make a mockery of the word "professionalism" in medicine?

Don't they know?

Listen attentively to the powerful focused artistic expression coming from a women who died way too young from poorly managed diabetes and its complications just like my grandmother.

Here's some dirt on the ABIM.

The put dirty money in the ABIM Foundation hoping clean it up. It did not work. They got caught. ABIMF dirty MOC train money was used to promote bogus professionalism and the fraudulent propaganda to cut costs called, "Choosing Wisely." That "clean up money" was used to prosecute physicians to guarantee control of a monopoly and more cash flow into the 'foreseeable future'.

That persecution did not go as planned and the lost big money on legal fees. Even the legal team ABIM used is greed for your money. According to court documents, the law firm Ballard-Spahr overbilled in several different ways. The judge in Von Muller's case told the ABIM so. Did the ABIM or anyone report the law firm to the Pennsylvania Bar Association or seek sanctions or perhaps a reprimand. Not when it's the governor's law firm. "What are you kidding?" I think the mock courtroom drama had the judge getting even for being made a fool of. Well written documents by a savvy judge recognizing the ruse. I was impressed.

How about this next bit of dirt!

Do you know the executives at the ABIM literally gambled away with your MOC money with shady Wall Street firms for at least twenty years. Greedy officers with the intent to enrich themselves gambling with your money! Look through Wes' site, you will find hints of it.

Eichenwald will write more about the corruption and the history of the ABIM later unless he just wants to wash his hands of the ABIM and be done with them for good. Who could blame him after they attacked him and his wife to shut up the story, whoever "they" were.

Yes, they absolutely gambled with your money, just like Vegas or the old Atlantic City. They won big then they lost big. It's all in their tax records. If you can't find them online, request them all from the transparent NEW ABIM. What's more damning and dirty is that the millions they stole and "earned the old fashioned way" on Wall Street paid for Cassel's golden parachute and huge compensation packages to the corrupted officers.

Do you want the skinny on the "tighten-your-belt" plan called "Choosing Wisely."

I have looked at the Choosing Wisely recommendations. They will harm patients with "their" dirty tricks to serve "stakeholders" like Kaiser. For example, "CW" will leave more uncontrolled diabetics to suffer amputations and strokes like this proud American singer Rosetta Tharpe. This is not opinion; it is medical science and factual statistical analysis.

Seniors and old veterans are being shoved to the back of the bus. I'm furious with the ABIM and their stakeholders after we all know everyone paid in to the system and the Veterans paid double by serving their country.

This Train Don't Carry No Liars, This Train said...

What happened to Rosetta?

Rosetta Tharpe, after losing a leg and suffering two strokes, died and was laid to rest in North Philadelphia. Yorktown.

This Train

"This train is bound for glory,
don't carry nothing, but the righteous and the holy
This train bound for glory, this train
This train don't carry no liars, this train
This train don't carry no liars, this train
This train don't carry no liars,
no hypocrites and no high flyers
This train don't carry no liars, this train."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sister_Rosetta_Tharpe

Additional lyrics.
"There's a strong cold north wind blowing.
Come to blow that unclean [ABIM] train right off the tracks.
Cause this train don't carry no gravy train liars, no sir, this train.
Cause this train don't carry no gamblers and jokers, no way, this train.
The north wind's a clean wind, it'll blow those liars right off your backs"
Cause this train is a clean train, this train.

Rossetta performing in England 1964, the year the surgeon general came out against tobacco, and Thomas Brem (lobbyist for big tobacco) was about to become the head of the ABIM to soften the blows for industry and subsidized tobacco farmers.

Did It Rain?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR2gR6SZC2M
That's All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9bX5mzdihs

The US Surgeon General came out with his report and prescription for America on the "weekend" so Wall Street would not plummet on the bad news. Two weekend days to reassure the investment bankers and the public.
It was not just Brem who wanted the "cigarette lie" told to the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee in DC. Washington, Wall Street and constituents wanted the lie.

This One's for Rosetta said...

Here's question about the ABIM stock portfolio?

What do you think the high fliers at ABIM had in their hoard of stocks and fast moving funds?

What percentage of Big Tobacco, Dirty Oil, Wall Street Firms, Pharma, and High Tech did they own and trade heavily in?

You might be surprised if you take it all the way back to the year 1965.

If you want to know the answers just call the ABIM. They can get tax copies happily for you of everything; because they are the NEW TRANSPARENT AND RESPONSIVE ABIM.


Anonymous said...

Counter claim of Puerto Rican physician Jaime Salas-Rushford dismissed with prejudice;
so ordered by Katharine Sweeney Hayden, USDJ, NJ [unsigned response]
https://ecf.njd.uscourts.gov/doc1/119110316596

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW JERSEY

AMERICAN BOARD OF INTERNAL MEDICINE,
Plaintiff/counterclaim defendant,

v. Civil Action No. 14-cv-06428-KSH-CLW

JAIME A. SALAS RUSHFORD, MD
Defendant/counterclaim plaintiff/
third-party plaintiff,

v.

RICHARD BARON, MD, et al,
Third-party defendants

THIS MATTER having been open to the court on the motion of plaintiff American Board of Internal Medicine ("ABIM") and putative third-party defendants Richard Baron, MD, Christine Cassel, MD, Lynn O. Langdon, Eric S. Holmboe, MD, David L. Coleman, MD, Joan M. Feldt, MD, and Naomi P. O'Grady, MD (collectively, the "ABIM" individuals") to dismiss with prejudice the counterclaims and purported third-party complaint of defendant Jaime Salas Rushford, MD;
AND, the Court having rad and considered the submissions and arguments of counsel;
AND, for good cause shown,
It IS, this________day of_______, 2015, hereby
1. ORDERED that ABIM and the ABIM individuals' motion to dismiss the counterclaims and third-party complaint of defendant Jaime A. Salas Rushford, MD be, and the same hereby is, GRANTED; and it is hereby
2. FURTHER ORDERED that the counterclaims and third-party complaint of defendant Jaime A. Salas Rushford, MD be, and the same herby are, DISMISSED WITH PREJUDICE.
BY THE COURT

____________________________
Katharine S. Hayden, USDJ

DrWes said...

Anony 11:53am CST-

The above order is merely the order PROPOSED by the ABIM. The case has not been heard yet.

An Open Coffin for Physicians? said...

Is this Blank Document An Open Coffin Waiting for All Physicians?

The above posting is a verbatim rendering of the "routine" blank order document "waiting to be signed" should the judge, upon review of the request to dismiss Rushford's complaints against the ABIM, and after hearing the arguments in response from Salas Rushford's Attorney, the blank "doc" is ready to go. The document, like an open coffin is ready to be signed. If it is signed all the complaints against the ABIM and Cassel, et al, will be dismissed with prejudice.

Why does it already say with prejudice. Why not without prejudice? I believe that would be more fair wording.

ClearEyes CtReporter said...

Yes, the response and arguments for staying the counterclaim have not been submitted as yet.

In other words, according to the judicial assistant for the Honorable Judge Katharine Sweeney Hayden, which I spoke with to verify by phone some time ago told me, "this blank order to dismiss the counterclaim has not been acted upon yet."

Not so fast! said...

FYI the ABIM along with Christine Cassel, Richard Baron, Lynn Langdon, Eric Holmboe, Naomi O'Grady, David Cole, etc., are being countersued by Salas Rushford.

The above blank copy is the only the ABIM’s hope that many things will not be exposed. It is their hope that Salas Rushford’s strong counterclaim for millions of dollars in damages, should Mr. Rushford Salas prevail in court, will be dismissed before the arguments (and potentially damning evidence against the ABIM) are ever heard.

Ed Rico said...

My shaky understanding of the law is that "dismissed with prejudice" would mean that the ruling on this claim would be final, eliminating any possibility of filing a future action for the exact same claim by Dr. Salas Rushford. As eloquently stated by Not so fast! above, this would be exactly the goals of the ABIM legal Dream Team, as ABIM hopes like hell that their day in court on this claim will never come.

Friends in High Places said...


Salas Rushford's counterclaim is important to all physicians.

In his counterclaim there will be many challenges to ABIM's de facto assertions about the organization. Tough hard questions will be asked and hopefully we will get answers.

One of these questions or challenges by the plaintiff Salas Rushford and his attorneys is whether the ABIM is a non-profit organization or not.

This assertion of being qualified for tax exempt status is questioned by every physician who reaches deep into their own pockets and dishes out the hard-earned cash to the ABIM every year.

Often the institutional employers pay or reimburse physicians, so they also feel the pain when ABIM's strong-arm collectors come around each year. Physicians and institutions feel the economic pain even further with time stolen for useless busywork.

Time is taken, money is absconded with to pay for Christine's golden parachute, and the deferred stash bequeathed to the Christine Cassel PSR legacy trust fund, and money wasted on free travel for a high-altitude scientist buddy who has plenty of dough stashed in mutual investment accounts to pay his own damn way.

Ok, get your nose back to the ABIM's COPORATE grindstone and stop reading these distracting facts.

Page Two said...

Von Muller got her day in court. We will see what the judge does.

Read her opinion in the New Jersey filings, Mr. Rico. It seems verbatim ABIM. Could we please see a restatement with the word "alleged" brought back into this 73 year-old Senior Judges legal lexicon.

Jurisdiction/forum? "Yes, ABIM you can have him." She's already ruled before she ruled if you read her opinion.

Time-barred? "No way the judge say."

I wonder if the judge remembers that she was appointed by Mr. Bill Clinton in 1997 and has family ties to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee?

Christine Cassel was appointed by Clinton in 1997 and served in the White House creating a Consumer Bill of Rights for Patients. (WRITTEN BY KAISER PERMANENTE)

I wonder if Judge Hayden knows or cares about what her husband's firm opinions and fervent activities are/have been serving on the Democratic National Committee.

Incidentally the judge's husband was a high ranking member and voted for Hillary Clinton in her 2008 bid for the presidency.

Oh, the joys Katherine of being in he click but not remembering cause you just turned 73.

Incidentally a Senior Judge only gets up to 15% of a normal case load. They are free to politic around as much as they can, and meet with whoever they choose. Lots of time for fraternizing. I respect judges who take less than they can get in private practice. Hayden's husband is a criminal lawyer.

Roll the dice on who gets this case. How many judges and how many Seniors. And Katharine gets the case? I love her as a fellow democrat, but really. God damn.
Can we be just a little less transparent in rigging the system!

Hope that helps you see some daylight, Mr. Rico. I am a democrat and out of the sunshine act of circa whenever, well look inside at what we all have become in this country, it does not matter who the blatant corrupt ones are. I want clean politics, industry and especially law. Geez!

In 2009 who would have thought that Wes Fisher would expose the scam and political activities of the ABIM. They are a branch practically speaking of the DNC and Kaiser Permanente. Look at the ABIM board chair elect waiting in the wings. Kaiser. Her we go again. They've got to time it all. Trump scares the pants off them. Declaring him fact free. They twist everything he says. Media leaves everything out.

Will our legal system leave out facts or suppress them too. We need truth not more propaganda and lies.

Can you see why this case is not going to be heard in Puerto Rico? I think we just alluded to it. There is enough overriding evidence to support the fact of hardship and consideration that Salas Rushford should be in a courtroom full of his peers not in front of ABIM's "select committee on character assassinations."

Exhonerate Von Muller said...

ABIM = Time stolen, pain inflicted, money wasted.

If you consider the facts and the influence pedaling in this Salas Rushford case, go back and study Von Muller's circumstances and trial.
No way should a Federal Judge issue a "writ to seize" when very few copyright cases ever see any litigation, whatsoever. This was god damn political and if others don't have the guts to recognize the truth and fight for their rights, we are all lost. More than one insider close to the ABIM said deal with the copyright quietly. Way too much exposure. Why not take that sound advice?

Think about it. We need to learn how to think not what to think. What happens if we are all true believers? (I don't mean religious belief. That is involving entirely different inward impulses of finer quality faith, hope, love.)

If we remain insouciant, we will believe anything we are told and we will be in Iran fighting the next war while we forget about our constitutional duties to protect this nation from liars like Christine Cassel and Richard Baron.

Barrage tactics, smoke and mirrors, the old Chicago "soft shoe." The ABIM is the foreign trespasser treading everywhere, stepping on our lives. Get it out of your life and keep it out. Look at the evil they have done. I mean real evil.

Von Muller. That case against a beautiful hard-working devoted physician with 10 kids should be retried or dismissed retroactively and the "girl" that they humiliated publicly should be exonerated and even compensated for her time, pain and money lost.

The ABIM officer responsible for this heinous act should be behind bars for destroying not just her life, but destroying our hard-earned freedoms.They should be put before the American people and publicly ridiculed for tampering with and destroying our fair judicial process. That Honorable judge they used was lie too.
Want proof of lying look at the tax form. Whoops, Mr. Joyner, we left that part out.
Ok, maybe we did misstate a little. You see what I mean. We have sufficient evidence to even make a citizens arrest on the ABIM officers for their cheating.

Von Muller's attorney was absolutely incompetent and did not defend her at all. He did not defend our constitution and bill of rights. Who are these guys that miss deadlines and fail to see the glaring truths that our freedoms and rights are not worth being defended at all. Go to the Supreme Court. At whatever cost. People will pay for your legal defense if it protects our rights, because we pay so much more if we don't fight - exponentially more.

If Salas Rushford needs help with attorney fees or expert witnesses to put an end to the fifty years of corruption at the ABIM then let us all chip in.

End this MOCkery inflicted on doctors and society.

Anonymous said...

Cassel is now part of the "blue ribbon panel" examining and advising the VA ... See Giroir and Wilensky, Reforming the Veterans Health Administration - Beyond Palliation of Symptoms. NEJM 2015 September 30. Epub ahead of print.

Taylor Swift Run With It said...

Taylor Swift on Copyrighting Medical Knowledge?

MOC Interview with Taylor Swift

Reporter: [Running to catch up with a blonde country star.]
Taylor Swift, what do ya think about the hottest question of the day?

Taylor Swift: [Jogging with headphones on, humming the melody to Blank Space.]
Sorry, what's that question about again? Could you repeat it, please?

Reporter: It's the burning question on Dr. Wes, that's a blog site, he just wrote about medical knowledge and copyright. Can it be copyrighted? This is in connection with the ABIM scandal and the persecution of physicians who shared medical knowledge together studying for a certification exam.

Taylor Swift: Jesus, you've got to be kidding. I'm jogging and you want to ask me such a stupid question. Who cares! Do you want to have a date with me or not? Just be direct.

Reporter: I don't know what to say. Well, maybe we could meet later tonight? I'd like that a lot.

Taylor Swift: Look, I don't like maybe; can you keep up or not? I'm gonna sprint now. See if you can beat me over to that river bench.

Reporter: [Heart beating fast, out of breath.]
Woo! You're fast. I could use a rest. Well, what about medical knowledge and copy...

Taylor Swift: [Not even breaking a sweat]
"I don't believe medical knowledge should be copyrighted.
That would be absurd. It's not a song is it!
Besides, who'd be dumb enough to buy it?"

Reporter: Well, have you ever heard 'bout the ABIM? Like maybe you read Kurt Eichenwald's "To the Barricades" or the "Ugly Civil War in American Medicine," or "A Certified Medical Controversy?" He wrote one more, I think, also, for Newsweek? He talks about their huge financial scandal and how they...

Taylor Swift: God, do you like me or not. Aren't you gonna kiss me? Like we've been sitting here for two minutes already. I've got to go the studio for a new single I just wrote...

Reporter & Taylor: [lips and whatever pressing together, sound of cars passing, honking, dogs yelping, river remains calm and flows as it has for thousands of years.]

Taylor: That was nice. I'm gonna sing real good now. By the way, silly, did you miss my choosing wisely commercials? They're subtle but they're everywhere...gotta go...

Reporter: What about tonight? Don't you wanna know my name...it's

Taylor: I know your name, dummy, it on your name tag...I'll meet ya back here in three hours...

Reporter: Should I, uh...oh, one more thing. What do you think about the ABIM?

Taylor: [singing] it's gonna be forever, or it's gonna go down in flames...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg

Anonymous said...

Oh geez, who picked these people ?!?!? New ABIM post

Super !! " enable them to define, refine and set performance standards for their specific Certification and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program."
AGAIN, ABIM CLEARLY GETS IT WRONG....AGAIN.

again MOC.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ABIM Announces Six New Specialty Board Members

New appointments include non-physician and inter-professional members

Philadelphia, PA, October 20, 2015 – The American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) today announced additional appointments for its Specialty Boards effective immediately.

Composed of physician experts in the respective disciplines, members of the Specialty Boards provide valuable insights that enable them to define, refine and set performance standards for their specific Certification and Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program. Each ABIM Specialty Board includes at least two non-physician members, including both a member of the inter-professional health care team and a public member with a patient/caregiver perspective.

“In 2013, ABIM updated its governance structure to recognize that, amid the changing health care landscape, broader perspectives are needed to ensure that board certification continues to affirm that physicians have the clinical judgment, skills and attitudes to deliver excellent patient care,” said Richard J. Baron, MD, President and CEO of ABIM. “Including patients, caregivers and health care professionals who are not internists as governance members holds ABIM accountable to the profession and to the public.”

View lists of current ABIM Specialty Board members. New additions to the ABIM Specialty Boards include:

Critical Care Medicine Board:
Michael McDuffie, PhD, Associate Professor and Chair of the Philosophy Department at California State University, San Marcos, San Marcos, California.

Infectious Disease Board:
Jeanne Keruly, CRNP, Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor in the School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.

Internal Medicine Board:
Susan Apold, PhD, RN, Clinical Professor of Nursing at New York University College of Nursing, New York, New York.

Nephrology Board:
Samir Nangia, MD, Vice Chair of Medicine and member of the Leadership Committee at Methodist Mansfield Hospital and a physician partner with Dallas Renal Group, Irving, Texas.
Nancy Hewitt Spaeth, RN, member of Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Northwest Renal Network Patient Advisory Committee and National End Stage Renal Disease Learning and Action Network, Seattle, Washington.

Rheumatology Board:
Atulya Deodhar, MD, Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of Rheumatology Clinics at the Division of Arthritis & Rheumatic Diseases at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Commercial from Our Corporate Sponsor said...

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The number 1 spot (subscriber and reader) of Dr. Wes. goes to...

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...and the answer is: ABIM PHONE POOL!

(While speaking to people on the phone to get vital answers and up to date news and information on MOC, Richard Baron, Lynn Langdon, Christine Cassel, Bob Wachter aka Elton John, Assessment 2020 Taskforce, lawsuits, NQF, the ABIM and ABMS, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars, and now even Taylor Swift.)


Taylor Swift Only One Life said...

Taylor Swift's Choose Wise Advice on MOC and ABIM

Choose wise, don't be dumb.
Save yourself some time
Don't waste your money
After all, you only got one life.

Run
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc8dbl-EqCY


Remember, I'm you're best friend
When the MOC's got ya blue
While you're lookin' for yourself out there!
You gotta know I'm always stickin' up for you!

Drops of Jupiter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJwE8Lg2fZk

Don't Forget to Put Your Boots On

Wish you docs well in your quest for freedom.
Wes Fisher, I've got the "number one song,"
But darlin', you've got the "number one blog."
If you docs ain't got what it takes, I'll help ya move it along.

If you don't like country, and you don't have the guts to sing it,
Then, baby, just hang up the phone!
But if you do have heart, then get in your Chevy,
And don't forget to put your boots on.


Doing somethin' good for folks doesn't mean your dumb.
©none

Anonymous said...

To add to the growing fire at the ABIM MOC, the folks who just took the Congenital Cardiology Boards are fuming mad at the irrelevant ABIM minutiae they were tested recently. I heard that there was a question on Holt Oram Syndrome and they wanted the exact genetic abnormality. If there isn't a more perfect example of a test question wholly irrelevant for clinicians....
I heard some folks were so disgusted, they left the test mid way. There are predictions that the passing rate will be in the low 40% range.

The ABIM debacle continues.
Let's hope this tragically corrupt and out of touch organization gasps its last breath. Perhaps the IRS or the DOJ will drive a wooden stake through its vampire like heart and end the misery of hundreds of thousands of physicians who take care of patients for a living.

Anonymous said...

ProPublica is under a gag order? DOJ, IRS?

Anonymous said...



"the folks who just took the Congenital Cardiology Boards are fuming mad at the irrelevant ABIM minutiae they were tested recently. I heard that there was a question on Holt Oram Syndrome and they wanted the exact genetic abnormality. If there isn't a more perfect example of a test question wholly irrelevant for clinicians...."

uh-oh !!!!!.... expect a visit and lawsuit from the *ABIM Enforcer*... none other than the underpaid Lynn Langdon herself.

She lives to make MDs miserable. . Ask Sarah Von Muller.


FREE SARAH VON MULLER

Poetry Journal: Defining Professionalism and Happiness in the "NWO" said...

Resident's Corner. Muriel Rukeyser, the "Ballad of Orange and Grape"

Muriel Rukeyser reading the Ballad of Orange and Grape
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN-NaxSRN4E

"Ballad of Orange and Grape" Text
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/248090

Muriel's life and works, 1913-1980
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Rukeyser

Dedicated to all the hardworking house staff everywhere!
A must listen and read for young (and mature) physician's searching to understand the meaning of life and how we use and abuse language.

I personally thank all healthcare providers whatever your role for saving lives, healing the sick, and keeping us healthy.
-Editor, Poetry Journal

"New World Order" Hallucinations & Funny Stuff Clearinghouse
©nonewhatsoever

Nobody's Poodle said...

END MOC NOW

I just got the reference! Ain't got a penny for...

"There's a house on a hill
By a worn down, weathered old mill
In the valley below where the river winds
There's no such thing as bad times"

"For the ABIM and their Cassel on the Hill"

Cotton Jenny Gordon Lightfoot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I8iRblpdDA
From one of my favorite old "albums"
Summer Side of Life Gordon Lightfoot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqS310cQ0CI

Je suis Canadien

Anonymous said...

"That Honorable judge they used was lied to."

Judges are vulnerable and can be compromised.

True or False?