1. In October, Omar Massoud, MD, PhD, a former Cleveland Clinic gastroenterologist, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 18 gross sexual imposition and six unlawful restraint charges. Dr. Massoud was arrested in December after being charged with six felony counts, three involving sexual assaults on patients.
2. In August, Zhi Alan Cheng, MD, was charged with sexually abusing three patients at New York-Presbyterian Queens hospital and raping three other patients in his home. Dr. Cheng, a gastroenterologist, is accused of drugging the women he allegedly raped in his apartment and filming the assaults.
3. In January, Great Neck, N.Y.-based gastroenterologist Morris Barnard was sentenced to 30 months in prison and must pay $1.4 million for a Medicare billing fraud scheme. Dr. Barnard pleaded guilty to submitting more than $3 million in bills to Medicare for gastroenterological procedures that he never performed.
