An Island doctor has been fined by the Massachusetts Board of Medicine for incorrectly advertising to customers and for failing to register for a state monitoring program.
During a meeting on March 28, the state board issued a consent order against Dr. Lisa Nagy, an environmental health practitioner and owner of Environmental Health Center.
In the order, the board found that Nagy failed to register for the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program — known as MassPAT — until 2023 and prescribed benzodiazepine to a patient without the required check. MassPAT is a state program that helps doctors identify patients that might misuse or abuse opiates. Benzodiazepine is a drug commonly used for treating anxiety and other mental-health related conditions.
The state board, announcing the action in a recent press release, also ruled that she incorrectly advertised that she was board certified in Emergency Medicine and incorrectly reported the same on a license renewal application.
The board issued a $1,500 fine and required Nagy to complete medication education as part of the drug monitoring program. The board also required Nagy to change her website and renewal applications to accurately reflect her certification status. Nagy’s website currently does not state that she practices emergency medicine.
“I have board certification in Environmental Medicine and will update my Emergency Medicine boards online within a year, though it is not necessary to have ER boards unless working in an emergency room,” Nagy wrote in a statement to The Times.
“The notification about Mass PAT was mailed, I believe, to West Tisbury to a nonexistent address but should have gone to Vineyard Haven and I did not receive it,” the statement continued. “I was therefore unaware of this way of checking on patients’ medications and have since been in full compliance for the occasional controlled medication that I prescribe.”
According to the state board release, Nagy has been licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts since 1990.
In 2022, she was selected as a new member of the Island’s Health Council, composed of leaders in health care and the public on Martha’s Vineyard. According to the council’s website, she is still a member.
Nagy was also featured in the Netflix show “Afflicted” that delves into exploring chronic health issues.
According to her website, Nagy received her doctorate in medicine at Cornell Medical College.
The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine licenses more than 40,000 physicians, osteopaths and acupuncturists. The board was created in 1894 to protect the public health and safety by setting standards for the practice of medicine and ensuring that doctors who practice in the commonwealth are appropriately qualified and competent. The board investigates complaints and determines sanctions.
During the March 28 hearing, the board also took disciplinary action against the medical licenses of Risa F. Aronson-Fox, D.O., Alan G. Corman, M.D., Michael J. Yaremchuk, M.D. and Joseph A. Mollick, M.D.
When Ms. Nagy first arrived on the Island, she made a presentation to the Dukes County Health Council about “Environmental Medicine”. The American Medical Association (AMA) did not, at that time, recognize Environmental Medicine as a specialty. She cited another medical organization in Upstate New York of which none of us had heard which had certified her. She appeared to be recruiting patients. She was informed that her presentation was inappropriate and she was not invited back during my 20+ years as the Founding Director and Member of the Dukes County Health Council.
Hopefully she will now be removed from the Martha’s Vineyard Health Council. I am one of the many former patients she has harmed. Many of us have filed complaints with the MA Licensing Board; I have been waiting almost 2 years now for the investigation of my complaint to be completed. If you are a former patient please consider filing a complaint and be sure to include evidence of your concerns. It is also possible to submit a public records request to get a copy of the many complaints which have been filed for over a decade.
Please…do scratch deeper
I have been a patient of Dr. Nagy for 14 years and have no complaints. My wife and I have benefited greatly from her insights and recommendations during that time.
In 2010 and 2011 when we first engaged her services I undertook some due diligence, inquiring into what the field of environmental medicine is. At that time, the Wikipedia article about it was almost entirely derogatory. Digging deeper, I found that many of the cited sources were articles in toxicology journals denying the prevalence and effects of toxins put into consumer products and put into the environment by industrial and commercial activities. One toxicologist was the primary or secondary author of the critical articles. Further research indicated that the greater part of his professional work was as an expert witness in court cases in which manufacturers and other enterprises were being sued for harms to people’s health. That was suggestive.
The wikipedia article today represents environmental medicine as a respectable and respected multidisciplinary field. Related is the article on environmental toxicology. These are not a bad place to start learning.
I see very little recourse to the druggist in environmental medicine. Historical perspective, my grandfather Clement Nevin was an Edgartown physician. When he died in 1944, his nephew took over his practice, that’s the Dr. Bob Nevin more folks know. My dad told me that his father (Yale Medical cum laude 1908) despised the AMA as a creature of the drug industry. So maybe I’m prejudiced. Just sayin’.
Most medical practice is concerned with remediation. Environmental medicine is inherently preventive medicine. Remediation involves ridding the body of toxins when tests show that you’ve got ’em. Prevention involves fixing nutritional and hormonal deficits when tests show that you’ve got ’em, and building strength of your immune system. That in a nutshell is Dr. Nagy’s practice as I have experienced it since 2010. My good health speaks for itself.
My neighbor’s daughter went to Lisa Nagy and Dr. Nagy quickly prescribed a steroid called Cortisol. This young lady has suffered for many years as a result of this incorrect drug, possibly long lasting harm to her adrenal glands. This family has discovered that numerous other patients were quickly mis-diagnosed by Nagy as having Addison’s disease, and all put on similar steroids. This doctor needs to be fully investigated. I can only imagine how much harm she has brought to many unsuspecting families.
There is a lot of misinformation about cortisol. Low-dosage hydrocortisone for impaired adrenal function is not harmful to the adrenal glands. Low (‘physiologic’) dosage of hydrocortisone is often not distinguished from ‘pharmacologic’ higher dosage e.g. for inflammation and related ills. “Doctors are poor at recognising adrenal insufficiency, with two thirds of patients presenting to medical professionals three or more times with symptoms of adrenal failure before the correct diagnosis is made.” (Source: “Adrenal insufficiency – recognition and management”, Clinical Medicine (Royal College of Physicians, London), this article is fortunately free to download.)
Cortisol has no patent protection so research has been underfunded and sparse until recently.
A good and readable source is Safe Uses of Cortisol by Dr. Wm. Jeffries. The Wikipedia article ‘hydrocortisone’ links to other reliable sources. There is a large and growing medical literature on the ramifications of dysfunction of the the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, directly implicating heavy metals and mold toxins for impairment of the immune system and psycho-social health. It makes people unstable and kind of batty. Links aren’t (or shouldn’t be) permitted here, search for yourself on the NIH PubMed site, the ScienceDirect repository, and other reputable sources. The abstract of the 2022 book Environmental Endocrinology and Endocrine Disruptors is informative, available on line. Look at the abstract, at least of “The impact of endocrine-disrupting chemical exposure in the mammalian hypothalamic-pituitary axis” in ScienceDirect.It works the other way ’round as well, chronic stress leads to impairment. Look at “Toxic stress history and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function …” in Neurotoxicology and Teratology (2019) and see if it doesn’t put in mind our present social and political contentions and polarizations. Unfortunately, given the state of the publishing industry, getting more than just the abstract of these publications is prohibitively expensive. The authors often post them on Researchgate for individual access under the fair use provision of copyright law. Don’t proceed in ignorance. Find out what you’re talking about.
Bruce- I’m not a doctor but an endocrinologist told me taking cortisol when it is not needed is harmful because it can fool your adrenals into thinking the cortisol levels are satisfied. This can shut off natural production of cortisol. That can be very harmful.
Thank you Dr Nevin. I can see that medical skill is passed on genetically, at least in your case. It takes a certain type of self-confidence to opine on a medical subspecialty with no formal training. Two peas in a pod…
To follow up on my first comment, if one chooses to go to the State website of the Board of Registration in Medicine (BORIM) they will find the following notation at the head of Ms. Nagy’s Profile: “This profile is being reviewed and will be available when the review is completed. Please contact the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine for additional information.” It is not only the Board but her patients who should be reviewing her credentials and practice.
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