Man charged with impersonating doctors to obtain GLP-1 drugs; FDA asks how to regulate generative AI devices; a suicide risk factor screening can miss — Morning Medical Update

Man charged with impersonating doctors to obtain GLP-1 drugs

Prosecutors say he used the names and NPI numbers of about 60 physicians across more than 3,300 calls to pharmacies.

Rodney Greer, 51, was arraigned in Manhattan federal court on a four-count indictment charging him with impersonating physicians to obtain prescription medications for paying customers, federal prosecutors said.

Beginning in March 2023, Greer acquired physicians' names and national provider identifier (NPI) numbers and used them to secure prior authorizations for GLP-1 medications from insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, according to the indictment.

He kept handwritten lists of license information for 60 physicians in 19 states and called roughly 261 pharmacies on 3,329 occasions between January 2023 and March 2026, prosecutors said. Greer is charged with wire fraud, health care fraud and two counts of aggravated identity theft, which carry a mandatory two-year term. He was arrested in Chicago on June 17.

The charges are allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

FDA asks how to regulate generative AI devices

A discussion paper floats testing devices for competency the way physicians are trained and evaluated. Comments close Oct. 19.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Aug. 18 issued a discussion paper on regulating generative artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled medical devices and opened a public docket on risk assessment, premarket evaluation and postmarket monitoring. The paper outlines a two-axis risk framework and a premarket approach built on competency assessment, pairing non-clinical benchmarking with clinical confirmation, which the agency says is modeled on how physicians are trained and evaluated.

It also raises risk-proportionate postmarket monitoring, foundation models and agentic AI systems. The Digital Health Center of Excellence within the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) led the work.

CDRH Director Michelle Tarver, M.D., Ph.D., said the public process is meant to inform an approach that safeguards patients while advancing innovation. The FDA said the effort aligns with Trump administration priorities on AI. Comments are due Oct. 19 under docket FDA-2026-N-7874 on Regulations.gov.

A suicide risk factor that symptom screening can miss

Adolescents and young adults who knew someone who had attempted suicide had roughly 2.4 times the odds of attempting themselves.

Adolescents and young adults who knew someone who had attempted suicide were more likely to attempt suicide themselves over the following two years, according to a longitudinal cohort study published Aug. 24 in JAMA Network Open.

Among 2,098 participants ages 13 to 22 with no prior attempt at baseline, network exposure was associated with 2.78 times the odds of a first attempt, and 2.43 times after adjusting for depressive symptoms. Adjusted probabilities of an attempt were 3% with exposure and 1% without.

Exposure was not associated with new-onset suicidal ideation but was associated with more depressive symptoms over time. Larger in-person networks were associated with fewer depressive symptoms, larger online networks with more. The authors wrote that asking about recent exposure may help identify youths at elevated risk whom symptom-based screening misses. The study relied on self-report and a single-item exposure measure and cannot establish causation.

The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text.