A prominent Walter Reed Orthopedic surgeon is accused of inflating research data to benefit the Medtronic product that he was researching. The surgeon, who earned over $850,000 as a Medtronic consultant, also appears to have submitted copyright forms with forged signatures of his co-authors, none of them had ever seen the research paper that bore their names. One of these authors had been a resident under Kulko –
As a resident conducting research with Kuklo, Andersen said he noticed “an aberrancy in typical research” that involved “discarding inconsistent findings which did not fit his hypothesis.” Andersen said he had misgivings, but added he was a young doctor inexperienced with the intricacies of research, according to Army documents.
To conduct questionable research is on thing – to do so while mentoring residents takes the violation to a whole new level. These are the future researchers of America, the children of academic medicine. There is a responsibility to train them to conduct good, ethical research that trumps any industry contract.
We are trying to create a culture in clinical medicine, similar to that of the airline industry, that makes residents, nurses and others feel safe to question doctors when they think something may be awry. It seems to me that we need the same culture shift in academic research, particularly when the funding is coming from Big Pharma.
this seems to be another case to fuel Dr. Kassirer's concerns he makes in his book 'On the Take – How Medicine's Complicity with Big Business Can Endanger Your Health'… it's such a shame how a doctor who should know so much better can stoop so low and be so unethical…
I bet that $850K is pretty insignificant to the doctor now, and pretty significant to the company when before the opposite was clearly true.
This situation is horrific, and they should all be charged with fraud.
"discarding inconsistent findings which did not fit his hypothesis."
Sounds like the dude chose thewrong profession.
From what I've observed, he'd have been a natural in national politics.
I wonder why you do not take Medicare since there are people, who by law, must be medicare patients due to their medical status? They have no choice. Is it ethical to refuse their treatment because you want a larger reimbursement by an insurer?
Anonymous –
Not sure what prompted this comment, but I DO take medicare. I I have limited it to current patients, however, many of whom are transitioning to Medicare as they age and stay in my practice. See this post for why –
http://theblogthatatemanhattan.blogspot.com/2008/07/doctors-dropping-medicare-domino-effect.html
Thanks for reading.
human nature, often corruptible. sad that there must have been multiple steps along the way in which there was complicity. nice brooklyn cyclones shots!
Has the blogger gone rogue, though? Hm..
I suppose I'm not one to talk, though.
Just wanna say that I really enjoy your Blog!! It's really a pleasure to read your posts. Just wanna thank you!! 😉
Vale from http://www.berlin49.de
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Still kicking, too busy to blog, expect to be back real soon…
Peggy
It's concerning I agree; however, this scenario places out everyday in every field where money or personal gratification is the ultimate goal.
It will be very difficult to change the culture that has permeated science and unfortunately medicine. Drastic changes that will inevitable hurt those in very comfortable positions are in order. I just hope that there are people out there with enough grit to push these changes through!
dr. peggy — missing your voice. hope all is well and that there has been some good eating up your way.