"The shame of America" fact sheet about Dr. Serafina Corsello and her "war" with the New York State Department of Health — OPMC - Office of Professional Medical Conduct

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, August-Sept, 2002

Within the orthodox medical establishment, there are practitioners who have believed that all forms of alternative or complementary medicine are "quackery" and "fraud." Certain crusaders within the orthodox medical establishment have systematically identified alternative health care practitioners for the purpose of forcing them out of the practice of medicine, using the legal system. Some of them were quoted in a 1998 article about I)r. Corsello in the Observer. These crusaders are particularly well-organized in New York State, where it has become clear that they have influence and contacts with certain staffers of New York's Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC). The sheer number of OPMC prosecutions against alternative practitioners in this State, when compared to other states, bears this out.

Despite these attacks, complementary medicine has attracted patients, both because of the limits of orthodox medicine, and the success of many integrative treatments. Although the effectiveness of certain protocols has been scientifically established, other protocols are experimental and represent the health care provider's best effort to combat diseases that have baffled the orthodox medical community as well as, sometimes, the alternative health care community. People frequently turn to alternative therapies when orthodox therapies offer little or no hope.

In 1994 the New York State Legislature enacted the Alternative Medical Practices Act to accommodate certain of the interests of the alternative health care community (Laws 1994, Chapter 558). Subsequent to this legislation, OPMC has given lip service to the interests of alternative health care providers, but has continued to vigorously prosecute them and to harass them out of practice. The power of the state against an individual practitioner is formidable, and only the most well-heeled individual, practitioner can afford to put up the kind of defense that is likely to prevail in an OPMC proceeding.

Ansel Marks, MD, OPMC's medical director, testified as to OPMC's practices before the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine this year as follows:

"This board arid the law is sensitive to complementary and alternative medicine. As a matter c)f fact, the law provides that at least two members of our board be physicians who provide complementary and alternative medical care. And actually there are more than two, and we are currently soliciting additional qualified candidates to serve on the board....

"We have a cadre of over 750 experts, physicians, in the State of New York, including many credentialed and qualified alternative practitioners. We call upon them to review cases with us [emphasis added]. Additionally, we make every effort, when there's a judiciary hearing panel, although the law doesn't require it, to include as one of the two physician members on a three person panel, to include an alternative medical practitioner, if possible."

The Corsello Case

If Dr. Marks' testimony is consistent with the policy of New York State, the actions of OPMC in the Corsello case are clearly not: