‘Dr. Meagan’ draws fine for drawing blood

OLYMPIA – A Spokane Valley “orthomolecular microbiologist” – who most recently practiced in Idaho – has been fined by Washington state regulators and ordered to stop practicing medicine without a license.

As part of a deal struck with the state Health Department, Meagan Walsh has agreed to discontinue blood cell analysis as part of any “nutraceutical” treatments she offers in Washington state. Initially, she disputed whether the analysis was a medical procedure.

But in a cease-and-desist order prepared by the Health Department and signed July 6 by Walsh, she agreed, “Meagan Walsh … does not currently hold a license to practice as a medical doctor in the state of Washington, and has never held such a license.”

Walsh’s Web site, www.micromedonline.com, says that “Dr. Meagan” has moved her clinic over the Idaho border to Post Falls due to “many exciting changes.” But no address is listed, and the phone number listed for the clinic no longer works. Walsh did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.

The order includes a $7,000 fine, all but $500 of which is suspended, as long as Walsh complies with the state’s order to not practice medicine in Washington unless licensed.

Two years ago, Walsh opened her Micromed Research Center in Spokane Valley. She would prick patients’ fingers, drip the blood onto a microscope slide, and inspect the blood cells on a computer screen attached to a microscope. She would then suggest various antioxidant and enzyme compounds she sold at the clinic and over the Internet.

Her Web site says that the compounds, which sold for $31.25 per bottle, can destroy harmful bacteria in the colon, or scavenge free radicals, boost immunity, ward off weight gain, help the liver or combat brain fog.

“There are over 5 million cells in a drop of blood, requiring countless communication networks for optimum health,” she wrote on the Web site. By peering at the cells in a drop of blood, she said, she could do a nutritional analysis to balance those communications and help with migraines, constipation, blood pressure and fatigue, among other ailments.

The state began investigating Walsh’s clinic last summer, after complaints from a patient and from someone concerned about an unlicensed medical laboratory. An investigator showed up unannounced at the clinic.

“As I recall, her first response was that she didn’t believe that what she was doing was the practice of medicine,” said Dave Magby, chief investigator for the state’s Health Professions Quality Assurance division. The agency investigated about 20 cases of practicing medicine without a license in the past year, he said.

There are several health professions that can draw blood – including doctors, registered nurses and some health care assistants – but Walsh had no medical credentials whatsoever, he said.

Last year, shortly after the state launched its investigation, “Dr. Meagan” told a Spokesman-Review reporter that she held bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Columbia State University, an unaccredited school that was shut down by federal officials in the late 1990s.

Questioned about her clinic, she said at the time that she made observations based on the blood cells, but not medical recommendations.

“I’m not a medical doctor, and I don’t diagnose,” she told the reporter at the time.

“It appears to us that the Department of Health has done exactly the right thing,” said Tom Curry, CEO of the state medical association. Health care providers, he said, “need licenses and should not practice beyond the scope of their licenses.”

As part of the investigation, state officials also contacted some of Walsh’s patients.

“More often than not, we get very little cooperation from the people going to these things,” Magby said. “Some are embarrassed that they got caught up in it, but a lot of them think they’re really being helped by this stuff.”

Walsh’s “live cell analysis” technique isn’t unique, he said. The state has investigated several similar businesses using magnified blood droplets as a way to sell herbal products, he said.

Walsh’s Web site says that she collaborated with several fellow practitioners, including:

• a chiropractor who specializes in eliminating allergies by clearing electromagnetic blockages in the body,

• an acupuncturist specializing in helping pain and menopause problems,

• a reflexologist,

• and a man specializing in the “Emotional Freedom Technique” to “stop emotional cycles of pain.”

“The free exchange of knowledge between practitioners for the empowering of others creates restorative energy everywhere!” Walsh wrote on her Web site. Efforts to locate and contact these colleagues for comment were unsuccessful.