You’d think that management at Usana Health Sciences would be careful about these things, wouldn’t you? Nope. They’re Usana. They don’t have to. They’re Usana, after all.
Credit Barry Minkow with uncovering another fraud being committed by Usana.
After Barry and Fraud Discovery Institute revealed that Ladd McNamara, a member of Usana’s “Medical Advisory Board” did not have a license to practice medicine, Usana went to work. You see, Ladd McNamara was calling himself a doctor, when he was not licensed and not allowed to do so. He lost his medical license in Ohio and in Georgia. He now lives in California, and a representative of the State Medical Board of California made it clear that he is not allowed to refer to himself as a doctor. From the National Business Review:
Finally, Mr McNamara wrote that he “will always be a doctor, whether licensed or not.”
But according to Candis Cohen of the State Medical Board of California, where Mr McNamara currently lives, “He is so wrong…As long as he’s living here he can’t call himself ‘MD’ or ‘doctor’ or ‘physician’ unless he has a California medical license.
McNamara is giving the finger to California’s licensing board with a blog that prominently refers to him as “Dr.” and “M.D.”
From the California Business and Professions Code:
2054. Any person who uses in any sign, business card, or letterhead, or, in an advertisement, the words “doctor” or “physician,” the letters or prefix “Dr.,” the initials “M.D.,” or any other terms or letters indicating or implying that he or she is a physician and surgeon, physician, surgeon, or practitioner under the terms of this or any other law, or that he or she is entitled to practice hereunder, or who represents or holds himself or herself out as a physician and surgeon, physician, surgeon, or practitioner under the terms of this or any other law, without having at the time of so doing a valid, unrevoked, and unsuspended certificate as a physician and surgeon under this chapter, is guilty of a
misdemeanor.
Usana now has a “Scientific Advisory Council” instead of the “Medical Advisory Board.” Ladd McNamara is not on the board, but the other members of the Medical Advisory Board are. Usana has also added Peter W. Rugg and “Dr.” Ricardo Calderon.
The problem is that Calderon isn’t a licensed doctor in California either!
Calderon appears to have a medical degree from Guatemala, but no license in any state in the United States, and no DEA number to prescribe medicine. The Usana website says the following:
Ricardo Calderón, M.D., MPH
Dr. Ricardo Calderón is a physician executive with extensive experience designing, implementing, managing, and evaluating medical, public health, pharmaceutical, and community health and development programs at the local, national and international level. He currently serves as Area Director and Health Officer for the Los Angeles County Public Health Department and Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine, Director of International Training Programs, and Director of the MPH Global Health Leadership Track at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine.
Click to view full size:
The following is his biographical information for the Los Angeles County Public Health Department:
M. Ricardo Calderón, M.P.H. Area Health Officer Metropolitan Service Planning Area
(SPA 4) San Gabriel Valley Service Planning Area (SPA 3) Los Angeles County
Department of Health Services.
Notice he’s not referred to as “Dr.” in this biography.
Just like Ladd McNamara, this guy is not allowed to call himself a doctor in California, because he’s not licensed there.
I know, I know. Usana’s excuse will be that they relied on the the credentials based upon his position with the Keck School of Medicine. Nothing is ever their fault.
By the way. It’s interesting to not that Mr. Calderon is a Usana associate. A silver director, with associate number 2542689. It’s also interesting that Usana doesn’t disclose this fact in its materials about this “council” which is apparently an attempt to add scientific or medical legitimacy to the company and its products.
