By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) – The State Medical Board of Ohio has reopened 91 sexual assault cases against physicians and other licensed medical professionals, according to a report on historic sex abuse cases that was published on Wednesday.
The medical board will also review an additional 42 previously closed sexual assault cases to determine if doctors who might have had knowledge of sexual misconduct failed to report it to the authorities, the Ohio Department of Public Safety said in its 173-page report.
The taskforce that produced the report was created by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine in 2019 in response to a sex-abuse scandal that involved Richard Strauss, a former team doctor at Ohio State University.
Nearly 180 men who attended Ohio State University claimed they were sexually abused more than two decades ago by the now-deceased doctor, and university staff who knew of the abuse failed to act, a report released by the school in May 2019 had said. (https://reut.rs/3bC8d9E)
“The Medical Board has made real and meaningful strides toward ensuring that never again would it fail to act when it holds credible, actionable information about one of its licensees, such as it had with Strauss,” Wednesday’s report said.
The taskforce had identified 1,254 closed sexual impropriety cases going back 25 years and ultimately decided to treat 91 of those as active cases. The news was first reported by The Columbus Dispatch.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
