Prognosis not good for local alternative medicine doctor

Dr. Alan Schwartz, medical director of the Holistic Resource Center in Agoura Hills, faces charges of professional misconduct that could result in the loss of his license.

In a complaint by the Medical Board of California, viewable at the website w w w. c a s e w a t c h . o r g , Schwartz is accused of violating a 10year probationary order established in 1999 when the medical board found he had engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with a patient.

During his probation, Schwartz was ordered to have a third party present while examining minor male patients. But according to the complaint, Schwartz admitted seeing 27 young male patients from 2002 to2003 without a chaperone present.

Schwartz also is accused of negligent acts in his care and treatment of four male patients, ages 3 to 14.

The complaint alleges Schwartz made unsubstantiated diagnoses of autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other medical conditions without formal physical or neurological examinations.

“In its brevity and lack of detail, this documentation of the justification of the course of treatment . . . is a departure from the standard of care,” the complaint said.

“My license is being challenged by the medical board because of my alternative approaches to treating autism,” Schwartz said. “We believe we can defend our approach to autism, which is very successful.”

Schwartz was an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Kansas Medical School in Wichita, and is board certified in pediatrics and board eligible in ambulatory medicine.

According to a biography listed on the Holistic Resource Center website, Schwartz is an author and has experience in “nutrition, herbal medicine, allergy testing, hormonal regulation, weight loss, chelation (removal of metals from the body), alternative cancer therapies, autism and antiaging medicine.”