Nominee for Career Achievement Award: Dr. David Linden

Remember him? The guy who gave herpes to two patients and lost his license for three months as a result (pretty stiff penalty, eh?). According to KLAS TV in Las Vegas, he was recently arrested for allegedly passing bad checks at a casino. To quote the news story:

The District Attorney is charging Linden with passing $300,000 worth of bad checks at three local casinos. According to the complaint, $150,000 in bad checks were passed at the Las Vegas Hilton, $100,000 at Caesars Palace and $50,000 at the Hard Rock.

I had wondered previously why only his Oklahoma license was suspended after he had sexual relations with two patients -- why not his Nevada license? Apparently, his Nevada license was put on probation, meaning he could still practice medicine. Apparently, Nevada is serious about defending its reputation as the state where anything goes. His track record of conducting psychiatric clinical trials is impressive for its violations of several FDA regulations. Giving herpes to patients is quite an accomplishment as well; not many physicians can match that claim to fame. As I noted earlier, Linden has run clinical trials for a wide variety of large drug firms. As long as you can recruit patients, who cares what actually happens to them during the clinical trials?

For the above list of accomplishments, I hereby nominate Dr. Linden for a Career Achievement Award. Even if he is not guilty of the present check fraud charges, I still believe he is a worthy nominee based on prior accolades and accomplishments.

Psychiatrist Gives Herpes to Patients

In a report that slams the FDA for lax oversight on clinical trials is tucked a gem regarding a psychiatrist named Dr. David Linden.

Last November, the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision suspended Dr. Linden’s license for three months because he had sex with two patients and gave them genital herpes infections, according to board records. Dr. Linden, who also owns a psychiatric center in Las Vegas, did not return repeated telephone messages.

WOW! He's also run into trouble from the FDA for poor conduct of trials -- giving herpes to patients was just icing on the cake. The whole story is at the New York Times. On that note, have a good weekend. In fact, I now officially proclaim the upcoming weekend as No Sex With Patients Weekend.

I hope this is not too tabloid-like for this site. I don't care about people's personal misgivings -- we all have our flaws. It's when these errors in judgment start impacting patients that they really bother me. I've not seen the records indicating that Dr. Linden engaged in such behavior, but I'm willing to trust the reporting of Gardiner Harris on this story.