Once a model, MA medical board lags badly

There have been 35 criminal convictions of Massachusetts doctors since 2002. In most states, such convictions are posted permanently online; in Massachusetts, not one is listed in the state medical board databas due to physician-friendly provisions in state law, the board's policy of purging certain records, sometimes in violation of state law, and outdated technology. Over the last two decades, these routine omissions and removals have taken thousands of embarrassing records out of public view, according to a comparison by the Northeastern University Initiative of the board's records and a nationwide database maintained by the US Department of Health and Human Services.