Due to confidentiality requirements in the Ohio Revised Code, the State Medical Board of Ohio will neither confirm nor deny investigators found any merit in the complaint filed against Dr. Victoria Wulsin (D-Indian Hill) about her ties to the Heimlich Institute and "malariotherapy". The board will also neither confirm nor deny that a complaint was ever filed.

At issue is a complaint filed against Wulsin asking for an investigation of her ties to the Heimlich Institute, which has seen numerous ethical inquiries in regards to "malariotherapy." Malariotherapy uses the malaria bacteria as a treatment for HIV/AIDS, and has seen experiments in China and Africa.

A letter from the board to Wulsin, released by the Wulsin campaign to the Cincinnati Enquirer, doesn't say that the claim had no merit, but does say the board has closed the complaint.

Wulsin (Corrected from earlier) communications director Kevin Franck previously released a statement saying, "The Board found that there was no merit whatsoever to the complaint and declined any further action on the issue. These false allegations represented the lowest form of sleazeball politics."

The Wulsin campaign released two letters addressed to Wulsin from the board to the Enquirer. The first letter requests Wulsin to attend an investigative office conference to discuss her activities while employed by the Heimlich Institute. The second letter states that after a "thorough review, the Secretary and Supervising Member determined that no further action was required by the Board and the complaint had been closed."

Ohio Medical Board Executive Staff Coordinator Joan Wehrle said that any complaint received by the board, or investigation by the board, is confidential.

Wehrle said that about ten to 15 percent of complaints rise to the level of disciplinary intervention and that Ohio law has about 38 different grounds for disciplinary action. She said quality of care cases are very important, complex cases.

Dr. Robert Baratz, president of the National Council Against Health Fraud, said he filed the complaint against Wulsin on Nov. 3, 2006.

Wulsin was pitted as the Democratic nominee against U.S. Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Loveland) for Ohio's 2nd Congressional District in the 2006 cycle and the two will face each other again in 2008. Schmidt defeated Wulsin on Nov. 7, 2006 by 2,517 votes.

The complaint filed by Baratz, as reported by the Cincinnati Beacon, alleges Wulsin, who is registered as Dr. Victoria Wells in Ohio, participated in "dangerous experiments" and requests an investigation.

Baratz said he had been contacted by a board investigator "some time ago," and on more than one occasion, but he was not asked to attend or notified of a review of the complaint. Baratz said if he had been contacted for such a review he could have provided the board with more information relevant to the complaint.

"The short answer is they did not contact me prior to the review and I was unaware that it had even happened until after the fact," he said. "Most state boards, until the case is, I'll say adjudicated, the investigations are supposed to be confidential. Obviously, you can hurt someone's character by a lot of false fights."

Baratz said that, from his perspective, the fact there was a complaint is not confidential and so that's why he made it public. He said the board, on the other hand, considers it confidential and will subsequently give no comment.

"Basically, after they've done their thing, unless there is a sanction, or discipline or something else of the licensee, they aren't going to do anything in terms of publicizing," he said. "But let's say they decide to hold a hearing, for example -- a formal hearing -- I believe that becomes public."

Baratz then referred to Wulsin's meeting with the board at the investigative office conference.

 "This meeting that was held sounds to me like something that wasn't a formal hearing, but it obviously was some kind of official meeting and I've never seen anything like that before," he said.

Baratz said that the scenario might exist in Ohio but in his 25 years of dealing with 20 different boards across the country in discipline cases he's never heard of this scenario.

"In other words, if you meet with a board in a formal way and it is a hearing that is open to the public, or it's not. And if it's not, why are you meeting with the board? The board has investigators and they either charge you or they don't."

Speaking generically about the Medical Board of Ohio's processes, Wehrle said that sometimes after the report of investigation is issued a given case is closed, and other times there may be situations where the secretary and supervising member of the board want to discuss the matter with the licensee.

At that point they have an investigative office conference, where the situation that the secretary and supervising member want to talk to the physician about can be discussed confidentially. Based on the outcome of that discussion, the secretary and supervising member will determine if the board needs to proceed with disciplinary action.

"Often, with what we call ‘office conferences,' there's no further action that needs to be taken by the board. It's not a situation that really rises to the level that we need to take a disciplinary intervention."

Wehrle said that in cases where the secretary and supervising member meet with the licensee the complainant is not typically also involved. Wehrle said if the board issues charges against a doctor and an administrative meeting is then required then a complainant is sometimes called in to testify, but that depends on the nature and facts of the case.

Wehrle said that office conferences are routine and that the secretary and supervising member hold office conferences every month.

"It's just another investigative tool that the board has," she said.

Wulsin has said she worked as a consultant for the Heimlich Institute, reviewing literature on using the malaria bacteria as a potential treatment for HIV/AIDS. Her association with the institute has been at issue since her 2006 bid. Wulsin has said she concluded in a report written for the institute that "the preponderance of evidence indicates that neither malaria nor Immunotherapy will cure HIV/AIDS."

Also on PolitickerOH.com:

Schmidt hits Wulsin for 'malariotherapy' ties in fundraising letter