04.30.07
Using Technology to Trash Your Doctor -or- Why you should feel bad for Dr. Sydney Coleman
The patient physician relationship is one of the most sacred in our society. It is legally protected and it forms the basis of successful and in some cases life saving partnerships in medicine. But when it goes bad, it can be bad.
Recently, in the world of plastic surgery attack blogs have come about denouncing practioners and “botched surgery”. Proponents argue that internet web blogs and sites serve as a warning or information source to patients. Detractors state that it represents an unregulated and often unsubstaniated attack. You can guess which side the doctors and which side the patients fall on.
Take the case of Dr. Sydney Coleman, a board certified plastic surgeon in New York (www.lipostructure.com), who has a seriously unhappy patient. As reported by Jim Leonardo of Plastic Surgery News, a publication from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, “The trouble began shortly after Dr. Coleman performed corrective plastic surgery on the patient, who, after leaving the recovery room, was never again seen by the physician or his staff. Several weeks later, however, the patient telephoned the practice insisting that Dr. Coleman pay his airfare from Chicago to New York for a follow-up appointment – and if Dr. Coleman refused, he threatened to use the Internet to damage his practice.”
By report, Dr. Coleman declined to pay the airfare and the patient created a website decrying his treatment and outcome. Because the patient initially used Dr. Coleman’s name as part of the website address Dr. Coleman sued to get it back (see the National Arbitration decision in July 2006 here: http://domains.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/743682.htm ).
But that wasn’t the end of it. The patient re-registered a second name and reposted the website. And then, cleverly paid for advertisement placement of the site. So now anyone searching for Dr. Sydney Coleman on google gets at the top of the page:
www.Patient-Support-Group.com   Coleman Pateint Support Group . . Coleman Patient Support Group
A little more research into this site confirms any practioner’s worst fears. There’s a lot of negativity. And there are a lot of claims, but not a lot of data. Signs of the electronic warfare between Dr. Coleman and his patient are obvious and clearly there is the scent of lawyers reviewing everything for traces of libel.
The site states “Recently, a website associated with Dr. Coleman has posted a direct response to our support group website and suggests that the information we are providing is not accurate. As a result, we will soon be posting detailed information about malpractice lawsuits and other complaints filed against Dr. Coleman.”
 Perhaps not suprisingly however, months later the site still remains empty about numbers of malpractice suits, complaints or unhappy patients. At one time apparently the site went so far as to post other patient pictures, perhaps providing some evidence, however those are missing now with the excuse being Dr. Coleman forced them to remove the copyrighted images. More troubling for those trying to find where the truth really lies is the patient him (or her) self has not even posted their _own_ pictures
Reportedly, Dr. Coleman had set up his own website to refute and answer the claims at www.drsydneyrcoleman.com, but this currently just links to his regular site.
Next Issue -Â Taking sides -Â Â Let’s get ready to rumble.
 (contd.)
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)
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