Doctor suspended after prescribing weight-loss drugs online
An Arkansas-based doctor is on suspension from practicing in Kansas for prescribing weight-loss medication to Wichita residents over the Internet and for operating without a state medical license.
The Kansas Board of Healing Arts imposed a 30-day suspension on June 30 against LyNette Johnson, a retired general surgeon at North Arkansas Regional Medical Center. Johnson could not be reached for comment.
Johnson was prescribing weight-loss drugs over the Internet based solely on an online questionnaire.
“I could be 10 years old and know how to operate a computer and answer yes and no,” said Kathleen Selzler Lippert, executive director of the Board of Healing Arts.
Selzler Lippert said it was particularly troubling that patients did not have an in-person evaluation.
“Practicing medicine is not a mathematical formula,” she said. “It’s not the same everywhere, every time.”
When the board subpoenaed Johnson’s patient records, she handed over eight online applications for Kansas patients. She told the board she did not have any additional patient records.
Johnson first got a license through the Board of Healing Arts in August 2002, and her last license renewal date is listed as June 2, 2014. She studied at the University of Kansas Medical Center, according to her license credentials.
According to Board of Healing Arts records, Johnson’s website offered prescriptions for a drug called HCG to lose weight. HCG stands for human chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone produced by the human placenta during pregnancy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned over-the-counter HCG products in 2011 and said it does not approve HCG drugs for weight loss.
“These HCG products marketed over-the-counter are unproven to help with weight loss and are potentially dangerous even if taken as directed,” Ilisa Bernstein, acting director of the Office of Compliance in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a 2011 news release about the drug.
Reach Gabriella Dunn at 316-268-6400 or gdunn@wichitaeagle.com. Follow her on Twitter: @gabriella_dunn.
This story was originally published July 10, 2015 at 4:48 PM with the headline "Doctor suspended after prescribing weight-loss drugs online."