Paul,

I’m more than willing to send you the threats that I have gotten, if it can be of assistance to you, NBPAS or practicing physicians.

• ABOG notified ACOG and ACOG reached out to me telling me to comply or they would kick me out of ACOG
• I had both an extended telephone conversation with the ACOG EVP as well as I sent an extremely polite but forceful letter to ACOG about why it would not be in ACOG’s best interest to kick me out for not MOCing and they said “that they would get back to me…”—–that was a couple of years ago
• I am sometimes a medical legal expert [both for the defense as well as the plaintiff] and I historically have donated all such revenue to charity. ABOG has spoken to attorneys in two cases who have attempted to use this against me. Several other attorneys have also attempted to do so but I do not have evidence that they had spoken to ABOG. It is possible that they learned of the issue from reading one of the prior depositions where opposing counsel tried to beat me up over MOC.
• The State of Alabama mandates that all medical experts be ABMS Board Certified. Opposing counsel once tried to have my testimony thrown out in an Alabama case but the attorney that hired me argued to the Court that “as I was ABMS Board Certified and maintaining MOC at the time of the event” that the fact that I now refused to comply with ABOG-MOC and that ABOG says that I am no longer entitled to say that I am board certified was not relevant to that case. The Court ruled in our favor, but that attorney will no longer hire me for any case originating in Alabama. So theoretically, I have been economically harmed. This gets complicated as mentioned above, I donate my medical-legal revenues to charity, so in actuality the charities were harmed. Legally I do not have to donate these revenues but these technical issues always cloud legal arguments…

I don’t want to fill up your inbox with documents but if you think that any of this information would be assistance to you or NBPAS feel free to let me know and I’ll send it all along.

On principal, it does bother me that Alabama specifically excludes any other board other than ABMS partners. I’m not sure that it is that easy to change a law in that state however if the AAPS suit was victorious in Federal Court I do believe that NBPAS could use that ruling to trump the Alabama law. My understanding is that Federal law has supremacy over state law when they are in opposition.

The Medical Board of California’s website and application/re-application also only accepts ABMS; this is something that I think NBPAS should oppose. As a California based organization the NBPAS Board could

• write to the MBC requesting equality,
• complain to your local state member of the Assembly and state Senate
• seek intervention with the AG, the Governor, Dev GnanaDev MD [President of the MBC], Dean Grafilo [Director of the Department of Consumer Affairs] or Alexis Podestor [Secretary of the Business, Consumer and Housing Agency]
• file suit against MBC

Dev GnanaDev, M.D. – President

Dev GnanaDev, M.D., of Upland, has been appointed to the Medical Board. He serves as chair of the Department of Surgery at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, a position he has held since 1989. He is a clinical professor of surgery at Western University for Health Sciences and an associate professor of surgery at Loma Linda University. He served as president of the California Medical Association from 2008 to 2009. Dr. GnanaDev has received a multitude of honors and recognition for his outstanding work and commitment to those who utilize public health programs, including the Medical Board’s Physician Recognition Award in February 2005. He earned his medical degree from the Kurnool Medical College in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Classification: Physician | Appointing Authority: Governor | Appointment Date: 12/21/11 | Term Expiration: 06/01/19