Posted on 10/03/2008 3:09:55 PM PDT by Ravi
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Retired doctor Parker Griffith's campaign to keep a north Alabama congressional seat held by Democrats for generations was going smoothly until his opponent released 20-year-old documents that accuse him of manipulating his cancer patients' radiation doses.
The accusations, which Griffith disputes, are contained in a previously sealed internal review done during a bitter feud between Griffith and the hospital where he once worked. The review claims Griffith manipulated the doses to keep patients in treatment longer and make more money.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.google.com ...
I’m not a radiation oncologist but am an ENT. My head & neck cancer patients normally get 6 to 7 weeks of treatment for a total of 7500 rads or so. I’m curious if we have any radiation oncology freepers who could help me understand this more.
Gee, look at this...
I’m not a medical professional, so I can’t make an informed comment on the substance of the charges. I can say this much- if Wayne Parker’s charges are proven true, he’s a shoo-in. If Parker Griffith is innocent of wrongdoing, the charges will backfire badly.
Sounds like a whole lot of nothing to me, but who knows what people in the district think about it.
No medical experience here either. But another corrupt ‘rat? Not surprising.
this is very unethical and dangerous if true. possibly illegal. any tumor responds to a daily dose of radiation over a certain interval. if you decreased the dosage of radiation and lengthened the treatment duration, you would encourage the cancer cells to become resistant and thus decrease your chances of cure. this is absolutely awful if true - I got sick reading thinking that a fellow doctor was doing this just so he could bill for more treatments. hopefully a rad onc will stumble on this and comment.
Not good at all. I would never endanger patients like that if I were a doc. He may lose more than a race over this.
You are hopefully right on former and definitely right on the later (see Grucci, Felix).
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