A Vancouver registered massage therapist has been disciplined for emailing clients his personal opinions on COVID-19 mandates and vaccines.
In a newly released public notice, the College of Massage Therapists of BC said Ian Glass admitted that, in January 2022, he sent a lengthy email from his work email address to about 205 recipients, primarily his patients.
“The email primarily contained criticism of a proposed mandatory COVID-19 vaccination requirement for health professionals, but also included two statements regarding the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines,” the notice said.
And, it said, while Glass identified himself as a registered massage therapist, he did not say that advice or recommendations on vaccination are outside of a massage therapist’s scope of practice.
The college also received complaints about the email not being blind copied when it was sent out, meaning the patients all saw each other’s email addresses.
Glass admitted he accessed his clinic’s record-keeping platform to obtain the email addresses. As a result, he disclosed the personal information of his patients to other individuals without consent, the college said.
The college has a defined policy about use of email accounts and how they may or may not be used.
According to the public notice, when one patient who received the email expressed concern about the email address disclosure to both the clinic and Glass, Glass used the clinic’s database to obtain the patient’s home address and send them flowers as an apology.
Glass agreed to a suspension of two days, a formal reprimand, an undertaking not to repeat the conduct, completion of remedial education on professional ethics and boundaries, and payment of $500 for portion of investigation costs.
“The inquiry committee is satisfied that the terms of the undertaking and consent agreements appropriately reflect the seriousness of the registrant’s admitted conduct and will protect patient safety,” the college said.
