Steven L. Shafer, MD (a former PENN anesthesia resident and current editor in chief of Anesthesia and Analgesia) had the sad task of preparing and distributing the attached February 20th letter which starts as follows: “Baystate Medical Center (“BMC”) conducted an investigation pursuant to the Baystate Health Policy on Misconduct in Research and Scholarly Activities (the “Policy”). Dr. Reuben cooperated fully in this investigation. BMC’s investigation determined that Dr. Reuben fabricated data reported in the referenced articles, and that all fabricated data were created under the sole control of Dr. Reuben.” Ten of the 21 to be withdrawn papers appeared in Anesthesia and Analgesia. Others appeared in Anesthesiology, J Clin Anesth and other respected journals. It is unfortunate; activities such as these lead to questioning the integrity of the research process. Peer review (based on prior examples of this sort) has a difficult time detecting fraud and fabrication. This does not mean that the peer review process is a failure but only that it has limits and the underpinning of the research process is an implicit trust that the investigators actually did the work they claimed to have done and have based their findings on actually collected data. A career is ruined, patients might have been given invalid treatments based on the conclusions in these papers, and the advancement of knowledge has been set back.
David S. Smith, M.D., Ph.D.
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