Who is Dr. Bert O'Malley? And What Does He Have To Do With Roger Clemens?

The big Roger Clemens hearing is today. Both sides have a lot of witnesses with conflicting statements. As I was reading in one report on ESPN.com, a doctor who had reviewed Clemens' medical records did not contain any indications of steroid use:

In a late addition to its case, Clemens' camp planned to submit to the committee on Wednesday a letter from a Baylor College of Medicine professor who examined medical records supplied by Hardin's office. The physician, Dr. Bert O'Malley, wrote that the records, which covered Clemens' time with four baseball clubs from April 1995 to August 2007, were "devoid of suspicious indications" of steroid use, such as high blood pressure or cholesterol, increased recovery time from injuries, increased muscle size, mood swings and numerous other symptoms.

O'Malley also said he saw no record of abscesses, which contradicts a claim by McNamee that Clemens had an abscess on his buttocks while with the Yankees as the result of an injection. Clemens' camp told ESPN's T.J. Quinn that O'Malley was asked to review the records, but he was not paid.

But who is Dr. Bert O'Malley of Baylor College of Medicine? The name definitely struck my eye because I felt I had heard it before, but not in a medical context. Rather, I recalled my parents, who are in research, mentioning his name in the context of their work. A quick Google search later, it turns out, Dr. Bert O'Malley is primarily a researcher! Although he does have an M.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, he is now the chairman of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at BCM. Um, this man probably has not seen the inside of a hospital in 20 years. Even if he does go in occasionally, shouldn't a clinician in sports medicine be the person reviewing Roger Clemens' medical records? Kinda shady, Roger. Kinda shady.

Update: Just to be clear, I'm not questioning Dr. O'Malley's background or credibility. He's a well-known endocrinologist; the issue is more about Clemens' medical history. When the committee subpoenaed Clemens' full medical record, there was an MRI of a buttock abscess:

Clemens’s medical records showed that he might have received an injection of vitamin B12 about 10 days before he met with Taylor on July 28, 1998, to discuss the injury on his buttocks. 

At the time, the infection was serious enough that Taylor started Clemens on antibiotics and asked that an M.R.I. be performed on the infected area. The procedure showed that the infection was probably caused by an attempted deep muscular injection. 

The committee, as part of its investigation, spoke with Dr. Mark Murphey, a radiology expert, who reviewed the notes from the examination of Clemens’s buttocks. 

Murphey told the committee staff that it was highly unlikely that the infection was caused by vitamin B12, a well-tolerated substance. 

Murphey said it appeared, as McNamee had said, that the infection was caused by Winstrol, which has been known to cause infections if not administered properly.

Taylor told the committee that he had given about 1,000 injections of vitamin B12 in his 30 years in baseball, and that he did not remember a player developing any type of infection from it.

So yea, clearly there is some discrepancy here. The only explanations I can think of would be either Clemens did not turn this over to O'Malley, or O'Malley did not interpret this data properly, or the radiologist Dr. Murphey's assessment is wrong.

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