The Iowa Board of Medicine has refused to license a Missouri physician who is trying to practice medicine in the state for a third time, KCCI Des Moines reported Dec. 1.
Brett Snodgrass, MD, of Hazelwood, Mo., sued the Iowa Board of Medicine last year to see a judicial review of the board's decision to deny him a license to practice in Iowa. The board's 2023 denial of his license, as well as a previous denial in 2021, was "based on questions pertaining to [Dr.] Snoggrass' moral character," according to the report.
The board's concerns stemmed from questions raised by regulators in the physician's home state, where he was also not granted license to practice medicine, despite having earned his medical degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2007. Dr. Snodgrass was then accepted into a residency program at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., according to documents from the Missouri Administrative Hearings Commission.
However, within his first few months, he was informed he would not be accepted into a five-year general surgery residency program. A supervisor had written in an evaluation of Dr. Snodgrass that he did not possess "the skills to be a caregiver of humans" and that he produced a sense of "fear, rather than confidence, in nurses, patients and their families."
In 2008, Dr. Snodgrass entered the UKMC's four-year pathology residency program, but had been placed on a remediation plan by December 2010. The interim head of the residency program, Kamanisnodr Lankachandra, MD, expressed concerns with "substandard behavior" from Dr. Snodgrass that included chronic tardiness, disheveled appearance and "utter inability to follow instructions."
Dr. Snodgrass also admitted to having engaged in harassment aimed at Dr. Lankachandra which resulted in a2021 criminal conviction on a charge of disturbing the peace. According to the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts, Dr. Snodgrass sent as many as 500,000 emails to Dr. Lankachandra and created a Facebook page that espoused negative comments about her professionalism. He also used her name and personal information, including loan documents and insurance records, to have her bombarded with mailings from different organizations.
He also allegedly harassed another colleague while using "a fake Indian accent," according to the report, and, while at Truman Medical Center, dictated notes for transcriptionists using a fake Indian accent. In 2012, Dr. Snodgrass allegedly posted two ads to Craigslist that included a drawing of a man that resembled a terrorist with a bomb strapped to his chest, one of which was targeting UKMC in its caption. He later claimed he created the ads to "get the attention of UKMC" so he could resolve issues regarding the residency program.
He was denied a medical license in Missouri in 2012. He also applied for licensure in Connecticut and Illinois with no success. He initially applied for licensure in Iowa in 2020 and was denied in 2021. He appealed that decision, which led to a hearing in March 2022. The board decided that if he chose to submit a set of evaluations, he could be re-considered for licensure. But Dr. Snodgrass stated that he would only participate in psychological or competency testing by an entity of his own choosing.