ILADS Pari Patel: Disciplined Twice

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Parimal (Pari) Patel is a physician assistant in Connecticut who was disciplined in 2016 for inappropriate prescribing and disciplined in 2008 for practicing without a valid license.

Patel has been associated with the pseudoscience group ILADS and claims to be a “Lyme-Literate Physicians Assistant” (sic). Patel’s clinic Wave Integrative Medical Center offers functional and integrative medicine. “Lyme literate”, “functional“, and “integrative” are marketing terms typically used by quacks.

Patel worked at My Health 1st Urgent Care before moving to Wave. His LinkedIn claims that he “Treated a substantial population of chronically ill borrelioses [sic] patients along modified ILADS guidelines as the main clinician, seeing patients from across the USA.”

In 2010, the Healthcare Protection Agency of UK–after noting the vulnerability of patients “desperate for an explanation and possible cure for their illnesses”– issued scathing conclusions about guidelines issued by ILADS:

  • The ILADS guidelines are not evidence-based and are poorly constructed.
  • Application of the ILADS guidelines’ poorly defined case definitions will result in a very high risk of misdiagnosis.
  • Use of ILADS guidelines’ vague treatment recommendations, including prolonged use of antibiotics, has potentially serious consequences.
  • Patients misdiagnosed with Lyme disease risk losing opportunities for diagnosis and treatment of other conditions. They also risk serious physical, psychological social and financial adverse events.

Inappropriate Prescribing

According to a 2016 Disciplinary Consent Order, the Connecticut Department of Public Health alleged:

On several occasions during the course of approximately September 2013 through January 2014, respondent wrote prescriptions for controlled substances for his son without adequate documentation and outside of a physician-patient relationship and/or outside of his supervisory agreement with his supervising physician.

Patel chose not to contest the Consent Order and “agreed not to administer, dispense or prescribe controlled substances to himself or members of his family, except in the case of a medical emergency.” Patel received a Reprimand and a $3,500 civil penalty. He also was prohibited from renewing his lapsed Controlled Substance Certificate of Registration without fulfilling training requirements.

Practicing without a valid license

According to a 2008 Disciplinary Consent Order, Patel admitted that he “practiced as a physician assistant without a valid license from approximately February 1, 2007 until approximately September 2007.” Patel was reprimanded and required to pay a civil penalty of $500.

Resources

Connecticut Medical Examining Board: Parimal Patel Discipline, 2016

Connecticut Medical Examining Board: Parimal Patel Discipline, 2008

Connecticut Health Team: Med Board Reprimands, Fines Doctors, January 19, 2016

Milford Patch: Physician’s Assistant from Milford Fined by the State, January 19, 2016

New Haven Register: Connecticut medical board fines Milford physician assistant, reprimands, fines doctors