Fatigue specialist guilty of misconduct
An Ottawa doctor known for his work on myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome, has resigned from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
Dr. Byron Hyde, 82, who has been a general practitioner in Ottawa since 1968, failed to maintain the standard of practice of the profession, according to the discipline committee of the college, which regulates and disciplines doctors in the province.
Hyde’s practice of “complex disease management,” mainly involving myalgic encephalomyelitis, was among issues cited in the finding that he committed professional misconduct and failed to maintain the standard of the profession.
Not only is such work outside the conventionally recognized scope of general practice, the discipline committee found, but according to an agreed statement of facts, Hyde “takes diagnostic approaches that are not supported or corroborated by conventional practice and orders investigations the results of which are non-specific and yield no discernible constructive findings.”
Hyde founded a charity called the Nightingale Research Foundation, dedicated to the study and treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome. The college said he mailed a newsletter from that charitable foundation to patients in his practice.
“In these newsletters, Dr. Hyde provided his personal opinions that the compensation of physicians in Canada is inadequate, complained about the college’s requirements of physicians, solicited patients to make donations to his charitable foundation and disclosed inappropriate personal information about himself and his patients,” the discipline committee found.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis is a medical condition characterized by long-term fatigue and other persistent symptoms that limit a person’s ability to function and carry out routine activities. Its cause is not known.
The college’s finding of professional misconduct goes beyond Hyde’s work with complex disease management.
The college also found that Hyde inappropriately charged a patient a $1,500 block fee, purportedly for services not covered by OHIP, without information about what those services were or offering the alternative of paying for such services individually.
The same patient was presented with an $825 bill after asking for a copy of her medical chart for motor vehicle litigation.
In appointments with that patient, Hyde disclosed his and other patients’ health information, questioned the competency of other physicians, complained about physician remuneration and about the college, including its record-keeping requirements, according to the evidence.
Among other things, the discipline committee found that Hyde failed to maintain proper records in his psychotherapy practice, billed OHIP for psychotherapy despite a lack of evidence in his charts that he performed any, prescribed addictive medicines without properly monitoring the patient, and billed OHIP for providing treatment to an employee and wrote a prescription for that employee without a patient chart.
According to his biography on the Nightingale Research Foundation website, Hyde studied medicine at the University of Ottawa, graduating in 1966. In 1984, he began studying myalgic encephalomyelitis and travelled the world investigating epidemics of the illness and learning from experts before treating patients. He was co-organizer of the first world symposium on myalgic encephalomyelitis in 1991. In 1992, he published a clinical textbook on myalgic encephalomyelitis.
Hyde was unavailable for comment. epayne@postmedia.com