Posted on 12/13/2010 7:51:30 AM PST by KeyLargo
Pilot duped AMA with fake M.D. claim
Article updated: 12/12/2010 07:08 PM AP EXCLUSIVE:
MILWAUKEE (AP) — He seemed like Superman, able to guide jumbo jets through perilous skies and tiny tubes through blocked arteries. As a cardiologist and United Airlines captain, William Hamman taught doctors and pilots ways to keep hearts and planes from crashing.
He shared millions in grants, had university and hospital posts, and bragged of work for prestigious medical groups. An Associated Press story featured him leading a teamwork training session at an American College of Cardiology convention last spring.
But it turns out Hamman isn't a cardiologist or even a doctor. The AP found he had no medical residency, fellowship, doctoral degree or the 15 years of clinical experience he claimed. He attended medical school for a few years but withdrew and didn't graduate.
His pilot qualifications do not appear to be in question — he holds the highest type of license a pilot can have, a Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman said. However, United grounded him in August after his medical and doctoral degrees evaporated like contrails of the jets he flew. He resigned in June as an educator and researcher at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Mich., after a credentials check revealed discrepancies, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Doctors who worked with the 58-year-old pilot are stunned, not just at the ruse and how long it lasted, but also because many of them valued his work and were sad to see it end.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyherald.com ...
In this March 14, 2010 file photo, William Hamman watches data on a computer as he supervises doctors during a cardiology simulation at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Hamman, an airline captain who lives in Michigan, claimed to be a cardiologist and trained other doctors in teamwork. But he never got a medical degree.
And he “supported” Obamacare?
Catch me if you can!!!
Why would a pilot want to be a fake doctor oO, you already have a pretty cool and well paying job...
but some of his coworkers comments seem to indicate he actually knew what he was doing as a doctor, maybe an ufortunate case of someone who had the skills but just couldn’t get past the ‘book learning’ required to become an official doctor, sad end for someone of his years in any case.
Seems that they could.
I find this exceptionally hard to believe in today’s data driven world. Almost all State Boards of Medical Licensure will verify licenses online to anyone at no charge. Furthermore, the American Board of Internal Medicine, which certifies Cardiologists also allows the public to verify certification online.
Any hospital or training institution who employs a physician without verifying basic information like licensure or Board Certification is grossly negligent.
The AP found he had no medical residency
Residency is not about "book learning." It's clinical experience, and residency usually lasts longer than medical school. I wouldn't want this guy with a superficial acquaintance with medicine working on a complex case of someone I cared for.
Since I know that the ankle bone is connected to the leg bone and the leg bone to the thigh bone, am I now qualified to be an orthopedist?
Apparently his acquaintance with medicine was anything but superficial.
This guy's apparent competence probably held off any suspicions regarding his qualifications. But, yes, his background should have been determined much sooner.
The relatives and their attorney of every patient he had anything to do with that died are thinking that exact thing right now.
I wonder if his malpractice insurance will refuse to honor any action against him, I imagine they will tell anyone making a claim to go fly a kite. This guy will lose everything soon I think.
B.O. posed with 'fake doctors' at the White House where he was endorsed by the AMA.
It was a joke how the White House staffers had a supply white coats which they handed out to the attendees for the Obama photo op.
"Democrats got their AMA endorsement of ObamaCare from immediate past president James Rohack, who was last seen leaving the Beltway on a turnip truck."
WSJ.com * NOVEMBER 22, 2010
This reminds me of a very strange situation where a community organizer scammed a whole nation into believing that he was the messiah. Couldn’t happen here though, as the MSM would see through his plan and alert us. /s
He stys at the Holiday Inn Express.
ooops stays
There a number of free websites where patients can check on medical provider credentials:
Sites for Checking Health-Related Credentials
http://www.ihealthpilot.org/research/lookup.shtml
https://www.abms.org/WC/login.aspx
http://www.consumerhealthratings.com/index.php?action=showSubCats&cat_id=11
On the other hand, most of his schooling would have been
outmoded in todays world, and if he had a smattering of
knowledge he could probably fake it very well...many
cardiologists know the heart and its’ disorders very well
, and also what their particular speciality in cardiology
,,,for instance some know electrophysiology very well, and primarily practice that
aspect, doing things like pacers, internal defibrillators,
mapping electrophysiological processes, ablation of
aberrant electrical conduction in the heart, etc. So he
could have faked general cardiology very well, as long as
he didn’t see that many “run of the mill” patients.
After all, post-book learning, it’s all about seeing patients, learning it as you go, going
to seminars, consulting with other physicians etc...
But you gotta fill in the dotted lines, and cross your t’s
and dot your i’s. Then they’ll believe you.(maybe)
"I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now. It’s not that it’s going to Mexico, it’s you’re in a confined aircraft when one person sneezes it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. I would not be, at this point, if they had another way of transportation suggesting they ride the subway. " 
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