Last year, amid concerns for patient safety, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) suspended seven grants to Duke University following “allegations of research misconduct…and…potential issues concerning clinical research irregularities,” we now know thanks to a letter from NIH to Duke.
As Retraction Watch readers may recall, Duke recently settled a whistleblower case with the U.S. government alleging scientific misconduct for $112.5 million. The newly described case involved different researchers, these in the psychiatry department.
Head over to Medscape, where our Ivan Oransky has the details.
Seems like Duke is always in the news for all the wrong reasons.
So patients were put at risk but not harmed. The consequences are modest because, by pure luck, no one was harmed. Yes, let’s definitely wait for someone to be harmed before NIH insists on real change!
Furthermore the article indicates that Duke has made internal efforts to improve patient safety, but we know by now that Duke’s internal efforts fail. The only external effort is an “advisory panel.” Patients don’t need advisory panels, which usually spend years meeting, planning and making recommendations that go nowhere; patients need action!