Latest news with #COVID19:ASecondOpinion
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Dr. Ryan Cole reaches agreement with Idaho Board of Medicine after Washington disciplinary order
In this file photo, Dr. Ryan Cole speaks during a panel discussion titled "COVID 19: A Second Opinion" in the Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Jan. 24, 2022, in Washington, D.C. The panel featured scientists and doctors who have been criticized for expressing skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines and for promoting the use of unproven medications for treatment of the disease. () The Idaho Board of Medicine has reached an agreement with an Idaho pathologist who was also disciplined by the Washington Medical Commission for repeatedly spreading COVID disinformation. The Idaho agreement, published Tuesday, requires Dr. Ryan Cole to comply with the terms of Washington medical regulators' disciplinary order. In January 2024, the Washington Medical Commission restricted Cole's medical license in the state of Washington after state regulators concluded that he knowingly shared disinformation about COVID-19 and broke medical standards by virtually prescribing ivermectin to COVID-19 patients, against medical evidence, the Idaho Capital Sun previously reported. Idaho medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Ryan Cole ends after legal agreement reached In the state of Washington, Cole's medical license is active with restrictions, the Washington State Department of Health's website shows. He is still licensed to practice medicine in Idaho, the Idaho Board of Medicine's licensing records website shows. Cole serves on the Central District Health Board of Health, which directs Idaho's largest regional public health district. In April, an Idaho medical malpractice lawsuit against Cole was dismissed following a private legal agreement, months after six doctors disagreed with Cole's severe cancer diagnosis that led a woman to undergo major surgery, the Sun previously reported. Cole and his attorney, Nancy Garrett, could not be immediately reached for comment. The Idaho Board of Medicine also could not be immediately reached for comment. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The Idaho agreement, formally called a stipulation, says Cole still 'denies the allegations underlying the Washington Order' and has appealed it. But the agreement says Cole 'understands the allegations and acknowledges that the (Idaho Board of Medicine) has sufficient evidence to establish the allegation for purposes of disciplinary action against (Cole's) Idaho license.' The Idaho Board of Medicine can adopt another jurisdiction's order when that licensed provider is disciplined elsewhere on grounds that apply under Idaho law. The Idaho Board of Medicine can also choose not to pursue disciplinary action in response to discipline in other states. In a 40-page response to the Washington Medical Board to complaints against him, Cole and his attorney argued that he did not violate any rules when he prescribed drugs to patients over telehealth and claimed COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous. But some of the arguments in the response to the Washington Medical Commission do not match Cole's public comments, investigations by the Sun found. In public appearances, Cole has said the complaints are politically motivated attacks. The new agreement appears to be the first public move in Idaho related to disciplining Cole. The Idaho Board of Medicine previously closed a complaint into Cole's Idaho medical license without looking into patient records, the Sun previously reported. The Idaho agreement says Cole and the Idaho Board of Medicine 'mutually agree to settle the matter expeditiously in lieu of formal administrative hearings before the Board.' CONTACT US The agreement says Cole will 'fully and timely comply with the terms and conditions' of the Washington Medical Commission's order. And within two weeks, Cole will submit a status report to the Board of Medicine about his compliance with the Washington order, the agreement says. In its order last year, the Washington Medical Commission set several conditions for Cole to keep his Washington medical license, including completing medical education courses and writing an essay focused on honesty in medicine. The Washington Medical Commission couldn't be immediately reached for comment. As part of the Idaho agreement, Cole waived his right to a full disciplinary hearing with the Idaho Board of Medicine, including the right to call witnesses, testify, present evidence, confront witnesses, and for reconsideration or judicial review of the board's orders. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Ryan Cole-Stipulation and Consent Order 5-20-2025
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Idaho medical malpractice lawsuit against Dr. Ryan Cole ends after legal agreement reached
In this file photo, Dr. Ryan Cole speaks during a panel discussion titled "COVID 19: A Second Opinion" in the Kennedy Caucus Room of the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Jan. 24, 2022, in Washington, D.C. The panel featured scientists and doctors who have been criticized for expressing skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines and for promoting the use of unproven medications for treatment of the disease. () Attorneys in a lawsuit against Idaho pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole for his alleged false cancer diagnosis that led a woman to undergo major surgery reached an agreement to dismiss the case. But almost no information about the agreement is public. Idaho 4th District Judge James Cawthon on April 10 agreed to dismiss the medical malpractice lawsuit, following a stipulation between attorneys on both sides. That came months after Cole and the patient's attorneys began mediation, which is a legal process to work toward agreement. Filed in April 2023, the lawsuit was scheduled for a jury trial in April. Granting a request from both sides' attorneys, the judge dismissed the case with prejudice. Each party will pay their own costs and attorneys' fees. In November, patient J.B.'s attorneys submitted a ream of additional evidence in court. Those included statements from six doctors — who either worked with the patient, or were independent from her medical care — that disagreed with Cole's diagnosis of a rare and aggressive form of endometrial cancer. The Idaho Capital Sun is identifying the patient only by her initials to protect her medical privacy. In legal declarations, two independent pathologist doctors called Cole 'reckless' in rendering the patient's cancer diagnosis. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Cole, an Idaho pathologist, gained fame for false and misleading statements he made about COVID-19. He serves as an appointed Idaho health official. Early last year, Washington state regulators restricted Cole's medical license in the state after they found he spread COVID disinformation and broke medical practice by virtually prescribing ivermectin to COVID patients. The drug — long used as an anti-parsitic in humans but which lacks evidence to treat COVID — can now be sold over the counter in Idaho, after the Legislature widely approved the deregulation this year. Cole and his attorney, Nancy Garrett, could not be immediately reached for comment. Mallam Prior, an attorney for the patient, declined to comment to the Idaho Capital Sun, saying the lawsuit's outcome was confidential. In 2021, Cole ran a laboratory being used by women's health practices in the Boise area. J.B.'s nurse practitioner sent Cole's lab a biopsy from her body that summer. She had invasive surgery after Idaho Dr. Ryan Cole misdiagnosed her. Now she's suing. After she underwent surgery to remove her female reproductive system, J.B. learned she didn't have cancer, the Sun previously reported. Part of Cole's stance against COVID vaccines included false claims that they cause cancer. There is no evidence that COVID vaccines can raise, or lower, a person's risk of cancer. There is evidence that they lower a person's risk of severe illness, death and chronic health issues after a COVID infection. 'I have seen a 10- to 20-fold increase of uterine cancer in the last six months in my laboratory,' Cole said at a meeting of America's Frontline Doctors in San Antonio, Texas, about two weeks after he misdiagnosed J.B. with cancer of the uterine lining. 'In the last six months. When did we start shots? January? How much solid-tumor cancer increase are we going to see over the next several years? Probably a lot.' In November, as part of the plaintiff's additional evidence submission, J.B's attorneys wrote that Cole 'claims to have retracted his comment that he was seeing a 20-fold increase of endometrial cancer in 2021 when there is nothing he can point to in order to demonstrate he has actually done so.' Actually, Cole's cancer diagnosis records — which the plaintiffs' attorneys obtained as part of the lawsuit's evidence discovery process — show 'less than a 1% increase,' the legal filing alleged. That was part of the patient's attorneys' request for a jury to require Cole to pay punitive damages in the lawsuit. Six other doctors — including five pathologists — evaluated the patient's tissue samples and disagreed with Cole's diagnosis, the filing alleged. Dr. Matt Tannenbaum, an Idaho Falls pathologist who disagreed with Cole's diagnosis of the patient, wrote 'it is my opinion to a reasonable degree of medical probability and far more likely than not that Dr. Cole was negligent and reckless when misdiagnosing (the patient) with serous carcinoma.' CONTACT US Dr. Paul Cohen, who serves as chair of pathology at Yale University's hospital in Connecticut, wrote that 'Dr. Cole's level of incompetence in this case rises to the level of being reckless.' 'He either knew or should have known that there were problems with the diagnosis of serous carcinoma, that it was an incorrect diagnosis, and that by rendering such diagnosis it was creating an unreasonable risk of harm to (the patient) and a high probability that such harm would actually result,' Cohen wrote. Cole maintained his cancer diagnosis for J.B. was correct, despite the lawsuit and another review of the slides since his initial diagnosis, the filing alleged. The medical malpractice suit J.B. filed in Ada County accused Cole of negligence and other harms. The lawsuit also was against his business Cole Diagnostics, based in Garden City. Washington regulators restrict medical license of Idaho doctor who spread COVID-19 disinformation The company is still registered as an Idaho business and lists Cole as president, business filings from the Idaho Secretary of State's Office showed Thursday night. Cole is still licensed to practice medicine in Idaho, the Idaho Board of Medicine's licensing records website shows. In 2024, his Idaho license temporarily lapsed, prompting questions about his status on the Central District Health board, the Sun previously reported. In September, Cole renewed his Idaho medical license. Central District Health is a regional Idaho government public health agency that serves Idaho's two most populated counties in and around Boise — Ada and Canyon — and two rural counties: Elmore and Valley. Cole remains on the Central District Health board. In the state of Washington, Cole's medical license is active with restrictions, the Washington State Department of Health's website shows. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
