It seems that every day, there’s a new article on ethical charges or issues involving research. The recent revelations about prominent clinical researchers getting fees from pharmaceutical companies that they did not disclose and even more recent revelations about pharmaceutical firms “ghost writing” research reports and paying doctors to put their names on them are two examples of conduct that shake the public’s trust and that also cast new doubt on research that some may have relied on in making treatment decisions about patients.
Now the NY Times has an article about Dr. Timothy R. Kuklo, a former military doctor at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, who has been accused of falsifying research on Infuse, a Medtronic product. Kuklo has resigned from his position at Washington University Medical School.
Not mentioned in the NYT article, but cited in an article in the Wall Street Journal, is that
The university has said it discovered, on university computers used by Dr. Kuklo, “extensive personal health information” of soldiers treated at Walter Reed.
Federal law governs the privacy of such medical records, and the Department of Justice now is investigating the case.
The WSJ article requires a subscription for full access.