Sarasota doctor arrested for practicing without license

Sarasota urologist Ronald Wheeler was arrested July 20 and charged with one felony count of practicing without a medical license. The Sarasota Police Department believes as many as 12 people could have been treated after Wheeler was no longer legally able to do so.

“The arrest of Wheeler is just the beginning,” said SPD investigator Mike Harrell. “We have a lot of research to do, a lot of records to go through, a lot of phone calls to field to determine if he did see other patients.”

Wheeler, 70, had his license revoked by the Florida Department of Health on April 20, but an anonymous complaint to the department said he was still practicing in the following months. The DOH contacted the Sarasota Police Department on June 23 about the potential violation, leading the SPD to plan an undercover operation.

On July 18, the SPD executed a search warrant on Wheeler’s two offices, located at 1819 Main St. in Sarasota. After securing medical documents that showed Wheeler had treated patients after April 20, the SPD sent undercover detectives to pose as patients seeking medical treatment for prostate cancer July 20. During the consultation, Wheeler said the office visit would cost $3,445 and discussed a treatment plan starting at $50,000.

According to the SPD, Wheeler never mentioned he had his license revoked during the conversation. Officers subsequently arrested him in his office and took him to the Sarasota County Jail, where he was released later that day on a $1,500 bond.

Harrell said Wheeler has not cooperated with authorities and hasn’t said anything to them since his arrest. Wheeler’s office was vacant as of July 21, but there is no signage on the doors of the office about any absence or investigation, nor is there any indicator on several medical websites that he has had his license revoked or is facing charges. Attempts to contact Wheeler were not immediately returned.

The Florida Medical Board revoked Wheeler’s license following four separate official complaints from patients. Before his license was revoked, Wheeler had drawn complaints from patients and scrutiny from medical professionals for years.

A self-described "world-renowned expert" on prostate cancer, Wheeler promoted High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU) treatments for patients. The procedure, which uses ultrasound waves to melt away cancerous prostate cells, wasn’t approved in America until late 2015. Before it was legalized in America, Wheeler charged patients $50,000 and had them travel to Mexico for treatment.

That approach drew criticism from the Florida Board of Medicine, which took action to have his license suspended in 2014. Wheeler has routinely denied any wrongdoing and has touted his approach, centered around HIFU, as more successful and reliable than traditional measures.

On April 13, a Twitter account associated with Wheeler’s name tweeted “HIFU's best is being taken down due to jealousy!”

Even after the procedure was approved in the U.S., Wheeler is alleged to have skirted key medical provisions that may have led to misdiagnosis. In Florida, a doctor can’t legally diagnose a patient with prostate cancer until after a tissue biopsy. Wheeler is reported to have never performed a biopsy and instead diagnose patients exclusively using an MRI.

The patient complaints also say Wheeler failed to conduct necessary diagnostic physical examinations that could have ruled out prostate cancer, instead prematurely steering them to costly and, ultimately unnecessary, procedures.

Wheeler touted his accomplishments as a pioneer of the life-saving HIFU procedure and boasted on websites and social media accounts about his 99% cure rate for patients with prostate cancer. Through online marketing, Wheeler attracted many out-of-state patients to have a procedure in Sarasota or Mexico, luring people from as far away as Kansas and Colorado.

Police are still investigating how many and to what extent patients were treated during the three-month period Wheeler didn’t have a license and what, if any, financial restitutions they could seek.

“You can see how he is still trying to entice patients come to him, making them think he is a world-renowned expert in this illness,” Harrell said.