Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Dr. Arthur J. Ting, 51, faces charges of wrongdoing made to the Medical Board of California that could result in the suspension or loss of his license to practice medicine, according to a May 24 article in the San Jose Mercury News, a San Francisco Bay Area daily newspaper.

Ting, best known to motorcycle road racing fans as having worked on racers from Mick Doohan to Nicky Hayden and who is also the official team physician for the Sharks of the NHL, the SaberCats of the Arena Football League and the Earthquakes of Major League Soccer, faces charges of allowing “a cast technician to treat patients as if he were a physician”, allowing “a physician’s assistant to prescribe controlled substances to her family” and distributing “controlled substances to a trainer for a prominent motorcycle team so he could give them to the racers”, said the Mercury News. The article outlined a number of other pending civil law suits and past brushes with the state medical board, including a two-year probation Ting received in 1996 for failing to diagnose a patient’s dislocated elbow.

“There’s really no substance to the story except that the accusations have been formalized because I haven’t gone in (to the medical board),” said Dr. Ting in a June 25 telephone call to Roadracing World. “If the medical board has a question, they want to interview you, they subpoena you to go in. You don’t have to go in, and I was advised by my attorney to not go in. All they (medical board) have is the investigative findings that they have and that people have a gripe to grind against me for some reason.”

Ting said that a disgruntled former physician’s assistant assigned to work with him while they were employees of a clinic owned and run by the Palo Alto Medical Foundation brought the charges to the California State Medical Board.

To shine more light on the lack of validity of the charges made against him, Ting pointed to the charge by the Mercury News article that he “issued 14 types of pain killers and sedatives” to trainer Dean Miller to distribute to motorcycle racers at his discretion. Ting explained that Advil, Aleve and other over-the-counter medicines made up the bulk of those 14 types.

“If there were any narcotics, they were prescribed for patients that I actually operated on. There’s never been any type of addiction problems, no performance enhancement issues, nothing of that nature,” firmly stated Ting, who then pointed out that Miller and racer Kenny Roberts were both patients under his care with prescriptions for pain medications. “We’re trying to facilitate the racers overseas. I’m trying to help people. There was nothing maliciously done at all. If anything I suffer from trying to take care of people. I know deep in my heart that all I’ve ever tried to do is help people. That’s what’s disappointing about the thing.”

Ting was unhappy with the way the Mercury News piece was written, saying, “I think it (Mercury News article) was a little one-sided. If I went through each complaint, I could defend each one.” But Ting says he can’t go over the accusations point-by-point. “Part of it is because we haven’t had a hearing. I don’t want to criticize the medical board in a way that would ultimately hurt my case simply because they have total authorization over my license. It doesn’t matter if I’m right or wrong. So I’m not in a position to criticize their investigative process.”

Even though his lawyer has discouraged him from talking to the media, Ting chose to return a call from Roadracing World asking for his side of the story. “I feel like I have to defend myself,” said Ting, before pointing out that he felt betrayed by other motorcycle news outlets, websites in particular, that didn’t call him before spreading the Mercury News’ report. “Most people that have at least some knowledge of the factors have called me before they’ve done anything. I’ve appreciated that. (However) I’ve had people from all over the country calling to say they’re ‘sorry to hear’, like I killed somebody.

“The (San Francisco) Chronicle called up here and basically told my attorney that it’s not even worth the story. The thing is the Mercury put in a couple of big name athletes that I’ve operated on, and that’s why it got on the wire. But it was sort of unfair.

“I feel like sort of betrayed from the standpoint of the media. Although, the Chronicle, the other big paper in town wouldn’t even run it. They felt that the thing was totally unworthy of it being in the paper. Then the second paper, this local paper where my office is, ran where they interviewed the athletes and the athletes have told them they felt the story was pretty wrong. But the point was, the Mercury news story that got on the wire was basically one-sided. I mean, none of the stuff has been proven.”

After pointing out his record of taking care of injured riders across the country, with or without health insurance, Ting closed by saying, “I can tell you that the accusations made we feel can be defended and that no harm was done to anybody.”