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by | Jan 1, 2022

Post Categories: Chronic and Infectious Diseases | Health Conditions | Perspectives | Studies/Reviews | Technology

Health Research Fraud

In a July 5, 2021, BMJ blogpost, Richard Smith wrote, “…the time may have come to stop assuming that research actually happened and is honestly reported, and assume that the research is fraudulent until there is some evidence to support it having happened and been honestly reported.” Smith edited the BMJ (British Medical Journal) from 1991-2004. In his blogpost, Smith refers to a webinar in which Ian Roberts, professor of epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine learned, to his chagrin, that the trials he used to write a systematic review on mannitol and death from head injury had never happened. The lead author of those trials claimed to be associated with a research institute that didn’t exist and later committed suicide. None of the co-authors of the trials had contributed patient data to the studies; some didn’t realize they were listed as co-authors until Roberts contacted them. None of the trials were retracted. Experience with another systematic review about colloids and crystalloids caused Roberts to become “sceptical about all systematic reviews, particularly those that are mostly reviews of multiple small trials.”

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Jule Klotter

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