Monday, November 5, 2018

Physician's Unethical Research Potentially Harmed Patients

An anesthesiologist may have caused harm to surgical patients including kidney damage and death through his flawed research and potential misuse of "intravenous solutions containing hydroxyethyl starch, or hetastarch, which doctors use to stabilize the blood pressure of patients during and after surgery or trauma" ("A Scientist's Fraudulent Studies Put Patients at Risk," Science, October 26, 2018). Joachim Boldt who worked at an academic teaching hospital in Germany "likely fabricated data, ignored ethics rules, and committed other kinds of misconduct in 98 articles he published with co-authors."

Discussion Questions:
  1. What do you think made this doctor seemingly put his patients in danger due to his unethical research?
  2. If you worked with this doctor as an assistant and saw problems with his research, would you discuss the issue with him? Why or why not?

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