And “bridge club” expulsion is better than inclusion.
As a practical protection for patients and standards, It’s a red flag to patients; moreover, insurers actually will often not cover treatment costs (that would ordinarily be covered) if the fertility practice does not belong to SART/attest it follows SART guidelines.

To restate my point – it would be better to play up concern than downplay it, in this case.

Now the California Medical Board is a different matter. They DO have a say in whether someone practices medicine in this state or not.

If ASRM kicks out Dr. K, it can be but a symbolic gesture. It’s like if you get kicked out of the local bridge club, it can be embarrassing, but you can still go and play bridge somewhere else.

It indicates a toothlessness and reactive, rather than proactive, stance in dealing with bad apples in the profession, and reactive only when it becomes apparent that there is no option of ignoring the situation.

Also it’s sort of rear-end-covery – careful to defensively self-congratulate about reduction in multiple pregnancies to stave off critisism, in a way that smacks of a peanut product PR flunky announcing the reasonable steps taken to reduce salmonella poisonings.

Here’s what – questions, serious questions, have been raised about Kamrava’s practice for more than a decade. Sanction of Kamarava is not sufficient now and I think anything less than kicking him out of SART will demonstrate a laxity in self-policing that will encourage know-nothing showboating politicians to intervene with inflexible, even draconian, controls.

THe best response now is to express MORE concern over this physician rather than less, to reassure that if any i in his records in undotted, and pattern of disreguard for safe and ethical practices will result in the severest loss of accreditation possible.

It’s better to overstate the concern than understate it, in this case. And frankly I doubt there is any overstatement to be concerned about. Patients and former employees and his own statistics indicate serious problems in his practice.

But in the broadest view, this case does point up a serious lack of self-policing or at least a slowness to act. Accountability may seem like a pain in the neck, but better to be accountable to professionals who understand the medical issues thoroughly than politicians who do not.