The radiologist who received, in one patient’s view, a mere “slap on the wrist” for missing a couple dozen breast cancers over several years is back in the news.
Mark Guilfoyle, DO, formerly of New Hampshire and now of Michigan, is still practicing, the Detroit Free Press reports in a sprawling, 3,000-word feature that USA Today picked up and disseminated nationally Feb. 5.
Retracing the troubled radiologist’s trail of exposed bungles, Free Press reporter Kristen Jordan Shamus notes that Guilfoyle, now 68, has been:
- disciplined by the medical boards in seven of the eight states in which he is licensed to practice;
- the subject of at least 13 malpractice suits;
- fined $750 by the New Hampshire Board of Medicine, which also barred him from reading mammograms there;
- the source of $4.6 million in settlements to 11 misdiagnosed women; and
- fined $250 by the Michigan state government for violating the public health code in New Hampshire.
‘Somebody should have taken his medical license’
To the previous coverage of Guilfoyle’s travails, reporter Shamus adds fresh perspective from angry patients and family members.
“I don’t understand how he’s still practicing medicine,” says a Michigander whose brother died at 34 back in 2002 after Guilfoyle missed a brain infection on CT. “After the first couple of lawsuits, somebody should have taken his medical license.”
Guilfoyle himself declined an interview request from the Free Press, although the outlet spoke with some Guilfoyle supporters.
Defended by a colleague
A diagnostic radiologist who has worked with Guilfoyle in Michigan, for one, suggests he’s been unfairly singled out.
“Mammograms are very hard to read,” the colleague, Alysse Cohen, MD, tells the newspaper. “I guarantee you, if any radiologist reviewed 5,000 cases of another radiologist’s work, they would find an equal number of misses. A second opinion is always going to find more.”
Cohen further points out that missing 24 breast cancers in 5,500 women would place Guilfoyle within the acceptable 3% to 5% error rate.
The Free Press also spoke with Guilfoyle’s attorney, New Hampshire-based Jason Gregoire, JD.
Gregoire may legally read mammograms in Michigan, attorney Gregoire notes, but he voluntarily stepped away from the subspecialty in 2017 and has kept to his implied promise even after moving out of New Hampshire.
‘Who actually knows how good their radiologist is?’
The lawyer’s words are small solace to the New Hampshire woman who lost her brother.
From the Detroit Free Press:
She knows telling her brother’s story won’t bring him back, but she hopes it will lead to action that prevents Guilfoyle from continuing to practice medicine. ‘I wish I could make him stop,’ she said.”
The article has sparked a lively discussion among its readers.
“It’s very scary that there’s the top of the profession and then there’s the bottom. It’s called practicing medicine,” writes one. “And who actually knows how good their radiologist is?”
Full article here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.