The Semmelweis Society is a non-profit whistle-blower and pressure group for physicians formed in 1986 by Verner S. Waite and named after Ignaz Semmelweis. The society's stated aims are to alert the public to the hazards of what it calls sham peer review, to support physicians who are affected by damaging peer reviews, and to lobby for legislative change related to medical peer review and whistleblower processes.
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Background
Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, obstetrician, after whom the society is named. (1860 portrait)The Semmelweis Society was founded by Verner Waite, who named it after Ignaz Semmelweis, an Austrian doctor who was ostracized by his contemporaries for reasons linked to his advocacy of hand-washing by physicians. Semmelweis Society International, Inc., (SSI) was incorporated in Tennessee in 2003. The stated aim of SSI is to assist physicians who encounter what the society calls "bad faith" peer review: the alleged misuse of medical review proceedings as means of personal retaliation against individual doctors.
The Semmelweis Society has worked with the Government Accountability Project (GAP) and other coalitions in the "Make it Safe" advocacy group and participated in the first "Whistleblower Week in Washington" (2007). In 2008, Whistleblower Week was expanded with the formation of the "International Association of Whistleblowers" (IAW).[citation needed]
Controversy
Roland Chalifoux, a current member of the Semmelweis Society, had his medical license revoked in Texas in 2004 after incidents including the death of a patient. The Texas State Board of Medical Examiners declared that Chalifoux's practices "constitute such a deviation from the standard of care that revocation of his license is the only sanction that will adequately protect the public".[1] Chalifoux subsequently secured permission to practice in West Virginia,[2] and alleges that the Texas board's actions constitute sham peer review. According to a Semmelweis Society ally, the Alliance for Patient Safety, Chalifoux and the politically conservative Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) are currently party to a class-action lawsuit against the Texas Board of Medical Examiners.[3]
In 2008, the society presented its "Clean Hands Award" to AIDS denialists Peter Duesberg and Celia Farber.[4]
References
- ^ Horvit M and Jarviss J, "Board revokes doctor's license," Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX), 12 June 2004, p.1B
- ^ Mitchell M, "Former Texas neurosurgeon granted licenses in West Virginia," Fort Worth Star-Telegram (TX), 7 July 2005
- ^ Alliance for Patient Safety announcement
- ^ "Hands Not So Bloody". New York Post. April 25, 2008. http://www.nypost.com/seven/04252008/gossip/pagesix/hands_not_so_bloody_108001.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-27.
External links
- http://www.semmelweis.org/ The society's webpage
Categories: Sociology | Human resource management | Non-profit organizations based in the United States
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