Comment and Opinion

Doctor's Data

This site was Highly Commended in the 2013 Millenium Awards. The citation read:

Doctor's Data (3/7/2010)

[Some material was redacted from here in 2017 because it could have had some bearing on a court case in which Doctors Data was suing someone for telling the truth about them. You can see the outcome of the case here.]

Those fighting quackery and medical nonsense have known about Doctor's Data for a long time. They are the champions in testing for things that supposedly cause harm and always finding what they are asked to find. As an example, I was offered test results from Doctor's Data back in 2004 as evidence that vaccines contained mercury. The "laboratory" had tested some vaccines without any form of blinding and with the manufacturers' specification sheets available to the testers. Remarkably, they even detected mercury in a vaccine which has no mercury used in any stage of manufacture, but it was unclear whether this false positive was due to sloppy laboratory work, miscalibrated equipment or simply lying to give the client the desired result. You can see my correspondence with the anti-vaccination liar client here.

And here is my evaluation of those results:

• The tests were performed by a laboratory which makes a living finding heavy metals for quacks to chelate. If it stops finding them, it stops being in business.
• The test certificate states that the the tests were: "Non-standard analysis – for investigative purposes only".
• The tests were not blinded in any way – the laboratory knew what was being tested and what it was being tested for.
• Specifications and documentation from the manufacturers of the vaccines were freely available to the testers so they knew what the samples were supposed to contain.
• The sample of Prevnar contained 1 part per billion, which is well below the EPA's acceptable level for mercury contamination of drinking water.
• The sample of Comvax (I assume it was Comvax – the test certificate calls it "Comvak") contained 3 parts per billion of mercury. As thimerosal is not used in the manufacture of this vaccine, claims that the manufacturer is not properly filtering it out are baseless. You could even say "lies". The source of the mercury in the test sample is unknown, but may well be simply an artefact of the sensitivity of the "non-standard" testing procedure.
• The sample of Pediatrix contains a proportion of mercury which is consistent with the freely-available documentation for the vaccine, giving the lie to the claim that the manufacturer claims to have removed mercury completely.
• The sample of Energix-B contained less mercury than the amount stated in the freely-available documentation for the vaccine, again showing that the manufacturer was truthful about residual mercury.
• No reference range is available for the tests, so they are meaningless.

Timmy's wild imagination (21/4/2012)
Patrick Timothy Bolen, spokesturd for cancer quacks and dentists who sexually molest their patients, publishes an insane newsletter which he claims goes to "millions of health freedom fighters". In his latest rant he has this to say about me:

Example – suppose one of the more well known pseudo-skeptics, Peter Bowditch, decides to ignore the "Protective Order," and attack witnesses on his Australian based websites. Easy answer – he'd get one Order signed by the court, and a time limit to comply, whether he is in Australia or not. After he refuses to obey, or misses the time limit, Doctor's Data simply informs the judge of that fact, and hands the Judge a new Motion – one, this time, ordering the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), based in Marina Del Rey, CA, to seize Bowditch's internet domains – and turn them off. Poof – in a microsecond, Bowditch is gone from the internet, a bad memory, like a fart in an elevator.

Just try it, Tim. I'm waiting.

Background about the crooks at Doctors' Data can be found here.

Speaking of lawsuits ... (17/8/2013)
I am continually reminded by Tim Bolen, spokesanus for cancer quacks and dentists who sexually molest patients or perform insurance fraud, that the bunch of crooks at Doctor's Data are suing Dr Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch and how the finalisation of this case is imminent, with the subsequent and immediate destruction of all who dare to point out that Doctor's Data is a shonky outfit that produces the sort of results that quacks expect and pay for. In April last year Tim even suggested that I might be drawn into the maelstrom, with Doctor's Data closing this web site "like a fart in an elevator". I am still waiting for the paperwork.

As far as I can ascertain the current progress of the action hasn't moved much past November 2011, when a judge looked at the complaints and ruled on what was in and what was out of the suit. Of course Tim says otherwise, but the day he tells the truth about anything will be the day they hand out ski parkas and mittens in Hell.

One thing I particularly like is the way that Doctor's Data included Quackwatch Inc in the list of defendants but then went on to state that the corporation didn't exist at the time they brought suit. I don't know whether this was just a case of wacky lawyer humour, incompetent lawyering or Doctor's Data just carrying on with their normal disregard for facts and the truth. Possibly all three.

Speaking of Timmie Bolen ... (22/11/2014)
Patrick Timothy Bolen, spokesparasite to the vilest of quacks and contender for World Champion dead horse flogger, has issued another of his foam-flecked diatribes about the going-nowhere court case by the clowns at Doctors Data against Dr Stephen Barrett. This nonsense has been going on for some years because Doctors Data were not happy that Dr Barrett should have told the truth about their activities. The really hilarious part however has been the commentary on the case by Tim Bolen over the years. A few years ago he announced that Doctors Data were going to seize the ratbags.com domain name and I would be gone like "a fart in an elevator". I am still waiting.

Bolen, who likes to call everyone who posts to the Usenet newsgroup misc.health.alternative "poor peter" whether he is replying to me or not, has several times declared when I have asked him when this action is going to start that I am not important enough for them to worry about. When I asked him why, in that case, he continues to talk about me the only answer I get is more "poor peter" and references to cupcakes and "homoskeptuals". Sane people have long been aware that Bolen is incapable of backing up anything he says.

His latest spray is a classic of the genre. Under the heading "Suing Captain Screwloose – It Has Always Been an "Alter Ego" Case..." he has posted another collection of his fantasies about how the court system works. You can read in all its glory at the link below, but I really have to quote the part where he talks about me.

I imagine that Doctor's Data's contractor for "restoration" of Doctor's Data's reputation has already made a plan on how they plan to use Orac David Gorski's blogs as their own.  The internet is based, whether the "skeptics" like it or not, in the US – under the jurisdiction of the US Courts.  It would be a simple thing to get a court order seizing ANY and ALL "skeptic" sites, anywhere in the world.  If, for instance, Doctor's Data decide that Australian "skeptic" nitwit Peter Bowditch was part of the cabal, they could EASILY get an order taking over his internet names, websites, and probably even the thirty (30) fake identities he travels the internet with.  If they set up the legal attack right they could even get the "skeptics" permanently banned from the internet.

Seize all skeptic web sites? Remove all skeptics permanently from the web? Whatever it is that Tim is smoking at the place he doesn't remember living at must be the most powerful hallucinogenic product known to man.

I have asked him on several occasions to name the 30 identities I'm supposed to have used, but for some reason he seems to be incapable of providing the list. In a recent m.h.a thread he responded to everybody who posted by saying that this brought down the names to be revealed. This is despite the fact that a simple examination of IP addresses would have shown that the people lived in several continents widely dispersed across the world. Timmie claims to have access to a world-class program for tracking people, but even a cursory examination of the ranting at the link below by anyone with the faintest knowledge of how the Internet works will see Tim's knowledge does not even come up to the level of "faintest". I will admit however that Tim Bolen actually does have value – as an endless source of amusement.

Catch up on the insanity here.

Read the fine print (20/12/2014)
Finding myself in a loose end, I decided to read the rules for people using the website belonging to the crooks at Doctors Data. Generally the rules for using a website or services of a business are quite simple and usually boil down to the level of copyright being enforced. Doctors Data go a little bit beyond this and have many thousands of words telling people what they can and can't do with their website and with the services provided by the "laboratory". The section quoted below is rather intriguing, and I invite you to pay attention to the highlighted words.

The information and communication services contained in this site are intended for our professional healthcare provider customers and should not be construed as medical advice. DDI's site SERVICES, SOFTWARE, and INFORMATION (the "Services") accessed through DDI's site are provided "AS IS" without warranty, express or implied. The information and statements made in DDI's site have not been cleared or evaluated by the FDA. The Services are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. DDI hereby excludes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular use or purpose with respect to the Services. There are no warranties, which extend beyond the description on the face of this Agreement. DDI makes no warranty as to the reliability, accuracy, timeliness, usefulness, adequacy, completeness or suitability of the Services. DDI cannot and does not warrant against human and machine errors, omissions, delays, interruptions or losses, including loss of data. DDI cannot and does not guarantee or warrant that files available for downloading from this online site will be free of infection by viruses, worms, Trojan horses or other code that manifests contaminating or destructive properties. DDI does not warrant or guarantee that the functions or Services performed in DDI's site will be uninterrupted or error-free or that defects in DDI's site will be corrected. Users of DDI's site are responsible for (1) implementing and maintaining adequate procedures and checkpoints to satisfy their particular requirements for accuracy of data input and output and (2) maintaining a means external to DDI's site for the reconstruction of any lost data.

I find it rather strange that the services of a diagnostic laboratory "are not intended to diagnose" anything. Actually I'm not very surprised at all, because Doctors Data aren't really in the business of diagnosis, they are in the business of providing their customers with the answers that they want. You want to find heavy metal pollution so you can apply some chelation to extract money from wallets? This is the laboratory for you. Want to prove that the mercury that is not in vaccines can be found in your child's hair, giving you grounds for a fraudulent court case? You've come to the right place. Want to convince someone living in Australia that they have Lyme disease from ticks that can only be found 12,000 km away so you can steal their savings? Have we got a test for you? Found a potential patient with both money and an itch? Just say the word "Morgellons" and the results are on their way.

I also find it amusing, but not in any way surprising, that they don't even like to make a suggestion that their tests might be reliable and accurate. Why would they need to be either when the job is to provide what the customer wants? I'm a bit surprised at the disclaimer about timeliness, as surely the "results" could be typed up as soon as the test request comes in. Why waste time and materials with all those test tubes and CSI props when you already know the answer?

Have I mentioned that Doctors Data is a bunch of crooks? I apologise if I've given you any indication to the contrary.

Doctor's Data (5/9/2017)
The court case between Doctors Data and Dr Stephen Barrett was settled in 2017. Dr Barrett has asked me to post the following message:

I have my own thoughts about the outcome of this farce, but I'll keep them to myself.