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Published on: 11/15/2001
Last Visited: 11/15/2001
The Rhode Island doctor, Dr. Martin P. Feldman, was tracked down through a national clearinghouse set up to locate doctors involved with the often-elusive Internet pharmacies.
The case spotlights the problem of drug-selling over the Internet at a time when many people, fearful of bioterrorism, are using such pharmacies to obtain antibiotics, against the advice of public health officials.
According to the medical board, Feldman wrote prescriptions for the impotence drug Viagra, the baldness remedy Propecia, the diet drug Xenical, and others, for patients who answered a questionnaire about their health and medical history.
He agreed to stop prescribing online as soon as he was contacted by the state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline earlier this year.Until the board reached him, Feldman told The Journal, he believed he was operating ethically in a new, gray area of medicine.
In August, the board barred Feldman from prescribing online, reprimanded him, placed him on probation for three years, required him to attend an ethics course and assessed him a $500 administrative fee.
In an interview with The Journal, Feldman defended his work as a way of serving patients who are too embarrassed to seek treatment from their doctors.He said not all Internet pharmacies are cut from the same cloth, and that he was careful to work with those whose standards he found acceptable.
But all state medical boards, as well as the American Medical Association, say that doctors must obtain a medical history and perform a physical examination before prescribing medication.
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Feldman was among about two dozen doctors who have been referred to their licensing boards.
The Rhode Island medical board conducted its own investigation based on the information from the federation.
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Feldman, 70, said that he practiced general surgery at Miriam Hospital and St. Joseph Hospital for 30 years.He began working for an Internet pharmacy as a supplemental source of income during his semiretirement. (He works part-time at a walk-in clinic in Pawtucket.)
He said he worked about three hours a day reviewing questionnaires and writing prescriptions, earning about $5 or $10 per prescription.Most of the prescriptions were for Viagra, Feldman said, but he also prescribed drugs for baldness, arthritis and skin blemishes.
"These were harmless drugs," he insisted."The only reason they're under prescription is to protect their patent rights."He predicted that many of the drugs he prescribed would eventually be available over the counter.
"I would not have done it if I felt it was risky," he said."I was very careful in the manner in which I did that. . . . I thought I was doing an ethical job.
"If somebody calls up and says they're bald, they want a medication to help them grow hair or preserve their hair, it's pretty obvious that's what it's for. . . . You couldn't stockpile any of these drugs for resale."
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Feldman said his patients' histories were carefully reviewed and he knew of no problems caused by the drugs he prescribed."When I was in practice, people were very casually given Viagra prescriptions," he said."I thought I was doing a better job than a lot of the people who would look at someone face to face."
Feldman said that many of the patients seeking drugs over the Internet, particularly men having trouble with sex, were unable to discuss their personal problems with their doctors.
Feldman said he turned away a man who wanted Viagra because he had "a heavy date" coming up but helped a recently widowed man who had started dating.Patients told him, he said, " 'Thank you.You saved my relationship.You saved my marriage.' . . . There were instances where it was gratifying.I felt I was really helping people."
Asked how he would know whether a patient were lying about his health -- concealing, for example, that he has heart disease -- Feldman acknowledged that he could not know.
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