Thursday, March 15, 2012

Scandalous: Scientists and Doctors Falsifying Research Data

Natural Society
Mike Barrett

Medical doctors are nearly revered by many individuals for their medical knowledge accumulated after years of schooling. These doctors have gone through years of training in what is regarded as the western based medicine philosophy, where drugs and surgery are more or less their specialties. In addition to knowing virtually nothing about nutrition, natural solutions, and how to address the root causes of health conditions, many doctors, as well as scientist, have also been shown to be falsifying data in order to have research published. What’s more, many colleagues of the scandalous individuals are urged to keep quiet about what they know.

A survey of nearly 2,800 scientists and doctors in the UK has found that 13 percent of them admitted to witnessing the falsification and fabrication of data created by their colleagues. Additionally, 6 percent of the nearly 2,800 individuals surveyed were aware of research misconduct at their own workplace which had never been properly investigated to looked into. Needless to say, there could very well be more scientists or doctors not speaking up, further increasing the scandal rate.

Dr. Fiona Godlee, editor for the British Medical Journal, for which the poll was conducted, says:

“While our survey can’t provide a true estimate of how much research misconduct there is in the UK, it does show that there is a substantial number of cases and that UK institutions are failing to investigate adequately, if at all…The BMJ has been told of junior academics being advised to keep concerns to themselves to protect their careers, being bullied into not publishing their findings, or having their contracts terminated when they spoke out…This survey chimes with our experience where we see many cases of institutions not co-operating with journals and failing to investigate research misconduct properly.“

Interestingly enough, there is so much fraud occurring in the medical field that websites are popping up solely to target these numerous cases. Another medical fraud coming to light is the case involving Duke University and Anil Potti, a researcher formally known by mainstream medical experts for transforming cancer research for the better. However, the scientific papers published by Potti turned out to be completely falsified and skewered – a case showing and ultimately convincing many individuals that medical fraud can happen anytime and anywhere, even at high-status universities.


With doctors falsifying data, often withholding information from patients, and cheating on exams, it may be time to reconsider the blind acceptance of ‘doctor’s orders’.


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