Texas neurologist is rare breed: “Serial Medical Whistleblower” fights corruption at expense of own career

For more than a decade, neurologist Robert Van Boven has saved people’s lives and been a serial medical whistleblower, at the same time. But most recently, his pot stirring has become severe enough that he may never be able to practice medicine freely again.

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Van Boven is currently embroiled “in a years-long legal combat with the hospital that once employed him, the state agency that attempted to end his career, and a range of lawyers and officials who believe they can wear him down and defeat him,”¹ all because he’s consistently refused to just go along with the status quo.

However, ask his fellow doctors how they feel about him and you’ll get statements like this, from his former colleague, Lakeway Regional Medical Center hospitalist Dr. Louis Lux:

“In my 25 years of medical practice in the state of Texas, I have never seen a neurologist more dedicated and passionate about patient care and quality of care than Dr. Robert Van Boven.

He is among the most intelligent of all neurologists that I have had the pleasure to work beside. … Due to his efforts, care, and concern, many patients have benefited with improved quality of life.

At times, some have not understood or fully appreciated the extent of Dr. Van Boven’s involvement, and have mistaken his zeal for arrogance or insult. In my experience, nothing could be farther from the truth.”¹

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But he’s not petty. He simply sees incompetence, negligence, or willful wrongdoing among his institutional superiors or peers, and refuses to look away. And time and time again, his whistleblowing has been confirmed and he has been vindicated:¹

• a 2007 settlement with a Minnesota medical facility over its retaliation against him for reporting hospital harm
• a 2010 settlement with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs over retaliation for his reports of mismanagement at a VA neurology facility at Pickle Research Campus (Austin)
• a brief 2010 dismissal from a Defense Department research appointment (reassigned after a public outcry)
• and most recently (2016-present), an ongoing legal dispute with LRMC and its successor, Baylor Scott & White Med­ical Center-Lakeway, and the Texas Med­ical Board, temporary but devastating restrictions on Van Boven’s medical practice, and an eventual exoneration last December.

We need more doctors like Van Boven, unwavering in their commitment to their patients and truth. To read the full article about Van Boven at The Austin Chronicle, click here.