http://www.forbes.com/sites/larryhusten/2012/11/11/nine-italian-cardiologists-arrested-in-broad-investigation-of-research-fraud-and-misconduct/
Larry Husten, Contributor
A medical journalist covering
cardiology news.
According to one Italian website, the investigation started in 2011 in response to allegations by a group, Amici del Cuore (Friends of the Heart), that patients at the Modena Hospital (Policlinico di Modena) received treatments and procedures as part of unauthorized experiments. In some cases the procedures may have resulted in fatal outcomes. The accused physicians ”performed experimental tests without making it known to patients for the sole purpose of writing about these trials in specialized magazines collecting money through bogus non-profit organization,” the website reported. [All translations in this story taken from Google Translate.]
“We wanted to ask questions about certain
procedures that went far beyond the standard ones, and that seemed unusual to
us,” the president of Friends of the Heart, Professor Giovanni Spinella, told Il Salvagente. “We were aware that invasive procedures were
performed, often on peripheral organs, and sometimes had little to do [with]
the heart. And unfortunately had caused discomfort and damage to several
patients.”
Another Italian site quoted a police
official who called it “a major operation” and said the accused “committed
human clinical trials without authorization and installed medical devices and
equipment defective in patients unaware of being subjected to an experimental
treatment.” The accused physicians then “created false medical records to cover medical errors.”
The Italian media said the investigation included recordings of telephone
conversations between the suspects. The Italian police named the
operation camici sporchi (“dirty gowns”).
The most prominent person arrested was Maria
Grazia Modena, the chief of cardiology at Modena Hospital and a former
president of the Italian Society of Cardiology. (Grazia Modena was the subject
of a profile in Circulation European Perspectives (PDF) in 2007.) Modena, 60 years old, was trained partly at New
York University and the
Mayo Clinic. The second main focus of the investigation appears to be
the head of the catheterization laboratory at the hospital, Giuseppe Sangiorgi.
According to news reports, he is the only arrested physician who is still in
jail.
Here are
the names of the nine physicians:
•
Maria Grazia Modena, chief of cardiology
•
Giuseppe Sangiorgi, head of the catheterization
laboratory
•
Luigi Vincenzo Politi
•
April Alexander
•
Simona Lambertini
•
Giuseppe Biondi Zoccai
•
Fabrizio Clement
•
Alessandro Mauriello
Andrea Amato, 36
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