The world of stem cell clinics is on edge right now with a number of negative patient outcomes reported and lawsuits in play such as San Diego stem cell clinic Stemgenex being a defendant in a proposed class action lawsuit focusing in part on alleged problematic marketing claims on their website (see archived posts on the lawsuit).
Pulitzer Prize-winning LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik has a new piece on both the broader stem cell clinic jungle out there and on specific issues with Stemgenex. It’s a must read for anyone who cares about stem cells.
Hiltzik goes through various concerns about the practices of Stemgenex and then breaks the story that one of the key Stemgenex doctors, Dr. Scott Sessions, was placed on probation by the California State Medical Board in February. The probation was not related to Stemgenex:
“There are other red flags. One of the medical group’s physicians, plastic surgeon Scott Sessions, was placed on three years’ probation by the California Medical Board in February. He was accused of negligence related to cosmetic surgery and other procedures he performed on two patients at an unrelated facility in 2011 and 2013.
Schubert told me Wednesday that “Dr. Sessions has informed us that he is in compliance with all requirements of the probationary terms of the medical board.” But the very next day, his name, photograph and bio had disappeared from the StemGenex website. Sessions didn’t respond to a request for comment.”
Sessions photo was up on the Stemgenex website (see image above) and then suddenly it wasn’t. Hiltzik also mentions that Stemgenex has had other questionable information on its website in the past.
With California having the most stem cell clinics selling non-FDA approved interventions of any state I hope the state medical board here will wake up to the fact that it needs to give this arena more attention.
Massive education campaign needed to protect patients from shams that “appear clever” to the general public. It’s obvious to all of us, but we have to help educate patients on what’s science and what is not.
The reference to co-authorship of a medical textbook with the 210 Noble (sic) Prize is puzzling. The 2010 Nobel Prize winner for Physiology or Medicine was Robert Edwards, for development of in vitro fertilization. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2010/edwards-facts.html
This is a list of his books:
A Matter of Life (1980, non-fiction; with Patrick Steptoe)
Mechanisms of Sex Differentiation in Animals and Man (1981, biology; with Colin Austin)
Preconception and Preimplantation Diagnosis of Human Genetic Disease (1993, biology)
Modern Assisted Conception (2003, biology; with Francisco Rísquez)
Of course, there were other Nobel Laureates in 2010- physics, literature, chemistry, and peace…maybe it was one of those!
Principles and Practice of assisted human reproduction
You left out the “mic drop”…
Well, if StemGenex don’t know a Noble from a Nobel then that should be all that anyone needs to know. Does anyone know who this 2010 “Noble” Prize winner is?
The 2010 Nobel Prize winners were:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2010/press.html
The incorrect spelling is probably deliberate — a sneaky legal maneuver?
StemGenex has a pretty comprehensive disclaimer:
https://stemgenex.com/disclaimer/
On the other hand, the surgical alternative could well leave you worse off or even kill you. It would be interesting to compare the disclaimers…
Life is like that.