A judge ordered each member of the Maryland Board of Physicians to pay tens of thousands of dollars in damages to Mark Geier, MD, stating the board abused its power in an attempt to humiliate Dr. Geier and his family, according to The Washington Post.
Here are seven things to know about Dr. Geier's case.
1. Dr. Geier reportedly caught the Maryland Board of Physicians' attention in 2006 for his treatment of autistic children. Dr. Geier espoused his belief the mercury in vaccines caused early puberty, aggression and symptoms of autism — theories scientists have widely debunked. Dr. Geier would prescribe his patients Lupron to to reverse the purported effects of vaccines, according to the report.
2. The Maryland Board of Physicians suspended Dr. Geier's medical license in April 2011 and revoked it the following year, stating Dr. Geier had misrepresented his credentials and that there is no credible medical research showing the effectiveness Dr. Geier's methods to treat autism, according to the report. Several others states followed suit and revoked Dr. Geier's medical license.
3. In January 2012, the Maryland Board of Physicians posted a cease-and-desist order on its website, alleging Dr. Geier improperly prescribed medication for himself, his wife and his son while his license was suspended. The order also listed the prescribed medications, which is not typical of such orders, according to the report.
4. After sending the board a letter through his lawyers asking the order be removed from the MBP's website, Dr. Geier filed a lawsuit against the board in December 2012. The lawsuit alleged the MBP publicized the details of the order in an attempt to punish Dr. Geier for his unconventional ideas regarding vaccines, according to The Washington Post.
5. In December 2017, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Ronald B. Rubin sided with Dr. Geier and his family and awarded him $2.5 million in damages. He said the MBP's cease-and-desist order constituted a significant breach of medical privacy and accused the board of failing to preserve internal emails related to the case.
"If [the Maryland Board of Physicians'] testimony were to be believed, which the court does not, it is the worst case of collective amnesia in the history of Maryland government and on par with the collective memory failure on display at the Watergate hearings," Mr. Rubin wrote in a December opinion.
6. The judge ordered 14 board appointees, as well as the board's lead attorney and the lead investigator on the case, to pay half of the $2.5 million in damages — between $10,000 and $200,000, depending on each person's net worth — out of their own pockets, the report states.
7. A spokesperson for the Maryland attorney general's office, which represents the Maryland Board of Physicians, told The Washington Post, "We believe there are serious errors in both the facts and the law and will vigorously pursue those on appeal."
To access the full Washington Post report, click here.