By MAURA LERNER, Star Tribune

October 1, 2008

The state Medical Board has reprimanded a former Parker Hughes physician for using excessive or unproven treatments on cancer patients.

Dr. Sanda Morar, 43, was cited for unprofessional conduct in September, six years after the board began investigating complaints about misconduct at the now-defunct Roseville clinic.

Morar, who now practices in Illinois, was the last physician to leave the Parker Hughes Cancer Center before it closed in April.

Her attorney, Iden Martyn, said that the disputed actions occurred more than five years ago and that there have been no complaints against Morar since.

“What you really have here is somebody who worked very hard in the subsequent years to work within, in every respect, the bounds of good medicine,” said Martyn, an attorney in Washington, D.C.

He said that the investigation was limited to a review of the treatment of seven patients in 2002 and 2003.

The board found that Morar, a cancer specialist, misused antibiotics, ordered unnecessary PET scans and other expensive tests, prescribed vitamins and supplements for questionable benefit and “subjected patients to prolonged treatment and expense.”

It also found that she “failed to provide appropriate end-of-life care” to two patients and had no documentation that they consented to ongoing treatment.

She was fined $8,000, and she agreed to take courses in medical ethics and recordkeeping. She has since obtained professional board certification in hospice and palliative care, according to the Medical Board.

Martyn said that Morar believed she was providing the best care to patients but that she accepts the board’s findings. “This is a physician who has, for all of her career, tried to do the best she could for the benefit of her patients,” he said. He said that she cooperated fully with the board “and really just wants to get on with her life.”

Morar is the second Parker Hughes physician to be disciplined by the board. The clinic’s founder, Dr. Fatih Uckun, was barred temporarily from treating patients in January 2006 amid allegations of excessive and inappropriate treatment and other misconduct. Last year, the Medical Board restored his license but imposed restrictions on where and how he may practice.

Maura Lerner • 612-673-7384

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