I am amazed in our era of “defensive medicine” that any doctor would do such a thing:

Connecticut Pediatrician Sanctioned for Lyme Disease Malpractice

A New Haven pediatrician was reprimanded for medical malpractice, after “diagnosing” and “treating” Lyme disease over the phone. Dr. Charles Ray Jones was fined $10,000, and placed on two years probation by Connecticut state regulators this week. The Connecticut Medical Examining Board voted unanimously to impose sanctions when they confirmed that the 77-year old New Haven doctor violated care standards by diagnosing Lyme disease in two children and prescribing antibiotics based on a phone conversation with their mother, months before examined them. The board found Jones broke standards by failing to reconsider his diagnoses of the children when lab tests results were negative for the tick-borne disease and that Jones was wrong to prescribe antibiotics for nearly a year without repeat exams and with no arrangements with another doctor—the patients live out of state, in Nevada—to monitor side effects and results of long-term antibiotic therapy.

I have no problem with this, as reported.  It seems to be a case where medical professionals successfully policed themselves and held one of their own accountable to objective standards.  Jury verdicts hurt pocket books, but they rarely if ever provide guidance for how doctors should practice in the future.

(If you read further down, the doctor’s lawyer seems to be portraying the defendant here as some sort of Gallileo against the establishment.  I don’t have any way of knowing if he has a case.  But I don’t see how medicine can simply allow “mavericks.”  There has to be some way the government can determine the difference between treating a patient and poisoning him or her.)