Name Xiulu Ruan | ||
Mobile Pain Doctors Found Guilty Of Running Pill Mill
Xiulu Ruan (阮秀禄）, MD, is a fellowship trained, pain management specialist who practices comprehensive pain management at Physicians’ Pain Specialists of Alabama, Mobile, Alabama. Ruan became a world record holder on May 14, 2012 by achieving 7 medical board/subspecialty certifications, and was awarded his first World Record Holder Certificate by the World Record Academy. On March 10, 2013, Ruan broke his own world record by passing his 8th board certification exam, the Medical Board of Independent Medical Examiners, thus becoming a new world record holder for being the most boarded physician in the US and in the World.
Contents
Early life
Ruan was born in1963, Jinan, Shandong, China. Ruan’s grandfather (maternal side), Dengchun Zhao (赵登春）, MD, was one of the pioneer medical doctors of western medicine in Shandong, China, who attended QiLu Medical University, Jinan, China, from 1917 to 1923, when western medical education was just introduced to China. Ruan’s father, Dr. Jingchun Ruan, also a graduate of Medical School of QiLu University (1947 to 1953), was a well known cardiologist in China from the mid 1960s to mid 1990s, and had held many distinguished title, e.g., Editor of Chinese Cardiology for 4 terms (16 years). Ruan’s mother Aizhen Zhao, a former nursing professor and director of Department of Nursing of Affiliated hospital of QiLu University as well as a graduate of Nursing Department from QiLu, had contributed significantly to the advancement of field of nursing in Shandong, China. Additionally, many relatives on either sides including 4 uncles, 1 aunt, 3 cousins, 2 brother-in-laws were medical school graduates. Among them, Ruan’s uncle Jinglun Ruan, who practiced family medicine in Hong Kong, also attended Medical School of QiLu University (1948 to 1954). Another uncle, Dechang Zhao, a well known and respected Gastrointestinal specialist as well as the director of GI specialty of Jinan City No. 4 Hospital for over 20 years; and Ruan’s great aunt, Aimei Zhao, was the most respected leading nursing expert in Shandong, China. Ruan’s two sisters, XiuYao Ruan & XiuQiong Ruan, were physicians in China, so were his 3 cousins Xinqi Xu (US medical doctor in family medicine, Flushing, NY), Cynthia Ruan (US medical doctor, anesthesiologist, Indianapolis, IN), and Xiuxuan Ruan (anesthesiologist, Fuzhou, China). Medicine had been an inseparable part in Ruan’s early life and certainly in his blood, therefore it was not surprising that he made the decision to become a first class physician when he was a teenager.
Education
Interestingly, like his grandfather, father, uncle (Jinglun Ruan), sister (Xiuyao Ruan), and cousin (Xinqi Xu), he attended the same medical school as they did, Shandong Medical University, formerly Medical School of QiLu University, from 1982 to 1988. He came to US in 1989, attended graduate school at LSU, Baton Rouge and received his Master of Natural Sciences in 1993. His formal medical training in the US includes an internship in the Department of Medicine, Worcester Medical Center, Worcester, MA from 1998 to 1999; Residency training in the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation in Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals, Milwaukee, WI, from 1999 to 2002; Clinical Interventional Pain Management Fellowship training in the Department of Anesthesiology, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI. Ruan was fortunate to be the 1st non-anesthesiology physician recruited as a Clinical Interventional Pain Fellow by the Department of Anesthesiology of University of Michigan Medical Center.
Board Certifications
All US medical school graduates are eligible for sitting in medical license exams after one year of post medical school clinical training. To be eligible for medical board certification exam, one has to finish a full specialty residency training (usually 3–8 years depending on specialty requirement), and to be eligible for subspecialty board certification exam, one has to have already achieved a specialty certification, demonstration of completion of required advanced study and mastery of required subspecialty skills, and most often require a formal fellowship training (usually 1–3 years) of the required subspecialty. Medical Board and Subspecialty Board Certifications are designed to assess clinical knowledge, judgment, professionalism, and clinical skills in the given specialty/subspecialty. Board certifications are added measures of expertise and have long been considered the gold standard in physician credentialing. They extend above and beyond medical licensure. Ruan believes that Pain Medicine, a newly evolved medical specialty, touches on a few other specialties/subspecialties, therefore a unique integration of varieties of multispecialty knowledge and skills is a must for better patient care. By March 2013, Ruan has accomplished 8 board/specialty board certifications including: American Board of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (ABPMR), American Board of Pain Medicine (ABPM), American Board of Electrodiagnostic Medicine (ABEM), American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM), American Board of Interventional Pain Physicians (ABIPP)http://www.abipp.org/diplomates.aspx, American Board of Independent Medical Examiners, Subspecialty Board of Pain Medicine, under ABPMR, administered under American Board of Anethesiology (ABA), Subspecialty Board of Neuromuscular Medicine, under ABPMR, administered under American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (ABPN). Ruan has become a Fellow of Interventional Pain Practice(FIPP) by World Institute of Pain since 2006.
Other Interests/Activities
In Aug. 2012, Ruan joint the faculty of the Department of Anesthesiology, Louisiana State University Health Science Center, New Orleans, LA, as a clinical associate professor. Ruan was appointed to the Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Pain & Relief as well as Editorial Board for Current Drug Abuse Reviews in March 2012. Ruan has also been on the Editorial Board for Pain Physician (Impact Factor 10.722), official journal of American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) since 2007. Ruan serves as a director at large at ASIPP. Ruan has published numerous publications in peer reviewed medical journals. Ruan’s research interests are in the areas of optimization of intraspinal analgesic therapy, minimization of side effects associated intraspinal pump delivery therapy,acute pain management in patients on intrathecal opioid infusion for chronica pain, risk mitigation of opioid therapy.
In 2010, Ruan founded a non-profit organization, the International Institute of Pain and Rehabiltion (IIPR), an online service, in order to create platforms for benefiting both health care providers, patients and their families.
Federal Indictment
In May 2015, Ruan was indicted on 2 federal charges, including healthcare fraud and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. He pled "not guilty" to both charges. http://www.local15tv.com/images/Indictment%20for%20Dr.%20John%20Patrick%20Couch%20and%20Dr.%20Xiulu%20Ruan.pdf