FAIRBANKS Alaskas high court has struck down the State Medical Boards medical license revocation for a Fairbanks doctor who specializes in anti-aging and weight loss treatment.

In what had been the states first medical license revocation since 2009, Alaskas medical board revoked Dr. David Odoms medical license in 2014. The board pulled Odoms license after concluding he prescribed drugs inappropriately to his patientSonja Carlson Quebbemann in 2007.Quebbemann died from heart failure about six months after last seeing Odom, but the state investigatorsdidnt directly accuse Odoms treatment of causing her death.

In a 27-page opinion, the courts five justices stated the Medical Board treated Odoms case incorrectly, both intheprocess the board used to pull his license and in the substanceof the boards conclusion that Odoms treatment didnt meet professional standards.

The Medical Boards decisional document is legally insufficient not only with regard to its choice of sanction, but also in its conclusion that Dr. Odom acted incompetently, the court stated in an opinion written by Justice Peter Maassen.

Odom, 74, has been practicing medicine in Palm Springs, California since he lost his licenseto practice in Alaska.Odom said in an interview Friday that he believes the action to take his license was an act of retribution by Banner Health, the nonprofit organization that previously operated Fairbanks Memorial Hospital and the Tanana Valley Clinic. Between 1993 and 2003,Odom fought a legal battle with the hospital over his interest in opening a surgery center in Fairbanks.

In my mind, Banner knewbecause their agent is the one who pursued my licenseand they gave a license to their own employee so basically he could take over my practice, he said.

Odomsaid hed like to come to split his time between California and Alaska practices now that he can practice in Alaska again.

The case against Odomwas based on his prescription of two drugs for weight loss and hormone treatment: the stimulant phentermine, and thyroid hormone drug Armour Thyroid. State investigatorsat theAlaska Division of Corporate, Business and Professional Licensing said Odom prescribed too large of a dose of Armour Thyroid and should not have prescribedphentermine because his patient had cardiomyopathy, a heart condition.

The first judge to hear the case sided with Odom. Administrative Law JudgeAndrew Hemenway concluded in 2014 that the state failed to prove Odoms treatment was below the required standard of care.

However, the Medical Board which ismade up of five physicians, one physicians assistant and two members of the public chose to revoke Odoms license after a meeting in closed-door executive session in June 2014.

In their opinion, the Supreme Court justices stated that revoking Odoms license was too strong a sanction. License revocations are usually caused by offenses like criminal convictions or medical license revocations in other states, the opinion states. In their decision to revokeOdoms license, the State Medical Board went beyond the recommendations of Division of Corporate, Business and Professional Licensing investigators who had suggested a suspension or fine.

In addition, the Medical Board failed to produce a written explanation for its actions as the law requires, the opinion states.

Contact Outdoors Editor Sam Friedman at 459-7545. Follow him on Twitter:@FDNMoutdoors.

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State Supreme Court denies medical license revocation - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner