MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'academic freedom'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:17:38 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4780272&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F05%2Fwho-is-really-bullying-academic-leaders.html Universities, which are supposed to discover and disseminate knowledge, ought to be the foremost defenders of free speech and a free press.  However, in the past decades, university executives have become notorious for trying to control speech that offends their political sensibilities (for numerous examples, see the FIRE - Foundation for Individual Rights in Education web-site.)  It seems that academic leaders get even more upset when their or their faculties' conflicts of interest are criticized, as demonstrated by updates about two important cases we have discussed.Columbia UniversityWe recently posted about reactions at the university to revelations in the movie "Inside Job" that the Dean of the Business School and one of its prominent professors failed to disclose ... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4780272 Tue, 03 May 2011 19:46:00 +0100 4780272 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4759039&cid=t_105125_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2FlVjvoT8rNwo%2F The sad case of Dan Markingson appears to have no end. The latest twist is playing out as an issue of academic freedom at the University of Minnesota where, seven years ago, researchers ran a clinical trial in which the 26-year-old participated. But the circumstances surrounding his participation and subsequent death led to widely publicized allegations the university put its own interests first. One university researcher also consulted for AstraZeneca, which sells the drug and sponsored the study. And researchers were allegedly under pressure to bolster enrollment. These details emerged following a lawsuit filed by Markingson’s mother, who objected to her son’s participation because he was already mentally ill and possibly incompetent, but was enrolled anyway. Her lawsuit went nowher... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4759039 Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:16:18 +0100 4759039 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4747603&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=36438&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeedproxy.google.com%2F%7Er%2FCato-at-liberty%2F%7E3%2FzgxhrmmdCgg%2F By Ilya ShapiroLately I seem to have been blogging — and filing briefs – a fair bit on campus First Amendment issues, regarding both students and professors.  The threats to free speech and academic freedom stretch far beyond the halls of Widener Universty and concern more than just the rules of political correctness. This month, UCLA’s James Enstrom (34 years a professor) is fighting his dismissal from UCLA for submitting a paper to a regulatory board that denied that diesel particulates cause 2,000 premature deaths in California per year.  The scientific literature published subsequent to his initial findings support his thesis and the conclusions his work refuted turned out to be written by a fraud who received his Ph.D. from a diploma mill.  In short, he was f... Cato-at-liberty blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4747603 Mon, 25 Apr 2011 12:36:50 +0100 4747603 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4219700&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F12%2Famerican-medical-schools-are-only-in-it.html We recently discussed the plight of young medical faculty.  It appears that their plight is even worse than we imagined.Last month, an abstract was presented at the Annual  Conference on Research in Medical Education at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges, in a session entitled "Your Career is More than Your Specialty."  The citation would be: Pololi L, Ash A, Krupat E.  Faculty Values in the Culture of Academic Medicine: Findings of a National Faculty Survey.The authors described a large survey, of over 5000 faculty at 26 US nationally representative medical schools, done as part of the National Initiative on Gender, Culture, and Leadership in Medicine (known as C ‐ Change) project.  The overall response ra... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4219700 Wed, 01 Dec 2010 16:28:00 +0100 4219700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4214036&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2010%2F11%2Fconfidentiality-clause-or-oath-of.html The advancement of modern scientific medicine depends on the search for and dissemination of truth. Academic medicine, like the rest of academia, ought to be based on openness, transparency, and academic freedom. The 1940 American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure opened with:The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition. Yet we have written about dark clouds of secrecy spreading over medicine and health care. The increasingly powerful leaders of health care increasingly use opacity and secrecy to keep what they are doing out of the public eye. We have frequently discussed the anechoic effect, how it is just not done to discuss certain topics, particularly those related to the adverse effects ... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4214036 Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:27:00 +0100 4214036 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3784392&cid=t_105125_122_f&fid=37835&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iqscorner.com%2F2010%2F07%2Fresearch-bytes-7-23-10-psychology-and.html Gottfredson, L. S. (2010). Lessons in academic freedom as lived experience. Personality and Individual Differences, 49(4), 272-280.What is academic freedom, what guarantees it, and what would you do if your university violated yours? Few of us academics entertain these questions or ponder possible answers. This leaves us individually and collectively vulnerable to encroachments on our right to free and open inquiry. I use a case study from 1989–1994 to illustrate how violations of academic freedom develop, the typical pretexts used to justify them, and what is required to halt and reverse them. My aim is to help scholars recognize when academic freedom is at risk and how better to safeguard it in daily academic life. To this end, I describe the general social mechanisms that operate both... Intelligent Insights on Intelligence Theories and Tests (aka IQ's Corner) blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3784392 Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:58:00 +0100 3784392 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3048067&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fwe-are-unable-to-share-documents.html In my post "Academic Freedom and ED EHR's Down Under: Another Update and a Welcome Development" I reported on the Univ. of Sydney's somewhat belated support for academic freedom, and the reappearance of an essay on ED electronic health records problems in NSW by one of its informatics faculty, Prof. Jon Patrick, after an apparently government-initiated attempt at censorship.A new update of the paper "A Critical Essay on the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System - Systemic Failure or Bad Luck" version 6, has now been posted by Dr. Patrick at this link on his department's web pages (a direct link at this time to the PDF is here).The press has started to take notice. A piece in the Sydney Morning Herald entitled "Health department accused of censorship" appeared on Nov. 28 here.That... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3048067 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:50:00 +0100 3048067 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3044706&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F12%2Fwe-are-unable-to-share-documents.html In my post "Academic Freedom and ED EHR's Down Under: Another Update and a Welcome Development" I reported on the Univ. of Sydney's somwehat belated support for academic freedom, and the reappearance of an essay on ED electronic health records problems in NSW by one of its informatics faculty, Prof. Jon Patrick, after an apparently government-initiated attempt at censorship.A new update of the paper "A Critical Essay on the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System - Systemic Failure or Bad Luck" version 6, has now been posted by Dr. Patrick at this link on his department's web pages (a direct link at this time to the PDF is here).The press has started to take notice. A piece in the Sydney Morning Herald entitled "Health department accused of censorship" appeared on Nov. 28 here.That... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3044706 Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:50:00 +0100 3044706 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026636&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2Fno-free-speech-for-comparative.html We have repeatedly argued why comparative effectiveness research, under ideal circumstances, would be a good idea.  As I said before:Physicians spend a lot of time trying to figure out the best treatments for particular patients' problems. Doing so is often hard. In many situations, there are many plausible treatments, but the trick is picking the one most likely to do the most good and least harm for a particular patient. Ideally, this is where evidence based medicine comes in. But the biggest problem with using the EBM approach is that often the best available evidence does not help much. In particular, for many clinical problems, and for many sorts of patients, no one has ever done a good quality study that compares the plausible treatments for those problems and those patients. Wh... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026636 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:22:00 +0100 3026636 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2981038&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2Facademic-freedom-and-ed-ehrs-down-under_10.html In "Academic Freedom and ED EHR's Down Under: An Update" I wrote about the disputed essay on electronic health record (EHR) problems in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) by medical informatics professor Dr. Jon Patrick, Health Information Technologies Research Laboratory (HITRL), University of Sydney.The essay was entitled "A Critical Essay on the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System ‐ Systemic Failure or Bad Luck?"I am happy to report that an updated version of the essay, version 5, is now available from Dr. Patrick's university web site at http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~hitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146 . It can be downloaded from the icon at Item 6.This is a welcome development.The essay is now labeled as an Op-Ed (Opinion Edi... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2981038 Wed, 11 Nov 2009 04:28:00 +0100 2981038 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2967249&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F11%2Facademic-freedom-and-ed-ehrs-down-under.html At the post "Academic Freedom Curtailed?" I wrote:The essay on Emergency Department electronic health record (EHR) problems in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) by medical informatics professor Dr. Jon Patrick, Health Information Technologies Research Laboratory (HITRL), University of Sydney, that I referenced in my posts "The Story of the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System ‐ Systemic Failure or Bad Luck" and "NSW Nightmare and Overuse of Computers" appears to have been censored. This apparently occurred at the level of the the government.Professor Patrick has updated his web page that formerly contained a link to his essay on problems with EHR's in that state's EDs.He advises:... This document has been temporarily withdrawn by the university following a complain... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2967249 Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:24:00 +0100 2967249 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2923229&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Facademic-freedom-curtailed-down-under.html In a stunning development:The essay on Emergency Department electronic health record (EHR) problems in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) by medical informatics professor Dr. Jon Patrick, Health Information Technologies Research Laboratory (HITRL), University of Sydney, that I referenced in my posts "The Story of the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System ‐ Systemic Failure or Bad Luck" and "NSW Nightmare and Overuse of Computers" has been censored. This apparently occurred at the level of the Ministry of Health.The essay was available as item 6 at http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~hitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146 . Attempts to download now provide a message "This document is not currently available." I do not know if the vendor was i... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2923229 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:18:00 +0100 2923229 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2920144&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Facademic-freedom-curtailed-down-under.html In a stunning development:The essay by an Australian professor of informatics on ED EHR problems in New South Wales that I referenced in my posts "From Down Under: The Story of the Deployment of an ED Clinical Information System ‐ Systemic Failure or Bad Luck" and "NSW Nightmare and Overuse of Computers: Do We Really Need Full EHR's in ED's" has apparently been censored, apparently at the level of the Ministry of Health.The essay was available as item 6 at http://www.it.usyd.edu.au/~hitru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=91&Itemid=146 . Attempts to download now provide a message "This document is not currently available." I do not know if the vendor was involved.This perhaps gives life to my motto "Live or let die" regarding health IT; let patients die so health IT c... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2920144 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:18:00 +0100 2920144 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2570444&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F07%2Fblogger-that-dares-not-speak-his.html Dr Douglas Bremner is a Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology at Emory University, and Director of the University's Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit. He has also written a book critical of the pharmaceutical industry (Before You Take That Pill), and writes a blog (also called Before You Take That Pill) that is also skeptical about certain aspects of current psychiatric dogma. Inside Higher Education reported that Emory University can apparently no longer bear to have its name mentioned in Dr Bremner's blog:Emory University has been accused repeatedly over the last year of looking the other way while one of its prominent physicians built extremely close ties to the pharmaceutical industry and -- critics charge -- failed to adequately report those ties as required by university and federa... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2570444 Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:26:00 +0100 2570444 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2306981&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F03%2Fpolitical-incorrectness-of-discussing.html From today's Boston Globe,Tufts University has withdrawn an invitation for a top aide to US Senator Charles E. Grassley to give the keynote speech at a conference on conflicts of interest in medicine and research, leading one conference organizer to pull out and question the university's commitment to academic freedom.The University-wide Committee on Ethics rescinded the invitation on March 13, according to e-mails obtained by the Globe. The messages said top Tufts officials refused to allow other administrators to be panelists at the meeting if Grassley's aide spoke, saying it was inappropriate to do so while Grassley is investigating ties between a Tufts professor and the drug industry.The senator, a Republican from Iowa, sent a letter on Feb. 17 to the president of Tufts, Lawrence S. Ba... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2306981 Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:15:00 +0100 2306981 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2222386&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34825&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wesleyjsmith.com%2Fblog%2F2009%2F02%2Fneo-inquisition-stifling-freedom-of.html Jet lagged from my recent journey to Ireland/UK, where there is an 8 hour time difference, and up at 3:30 AM, I decided to see what I had missed at The Corner and ran across an entry by Jonah Goldberg discussing a debate between two philosophers, Alvin Plantinga and Daniel Dennett. Plantinga apparently claims that Darwinian theory is compatible with faith and theism, while Dennett is one of the new atheists who believes science has proven religion to be wrong.I don't know the work of either man, and since that is not my field and is beyond our scope here at SHS, and I don't want us to get into the religion versus science, science versus religion controversy here. But what caught my eye was a plea made by a "live blogger" of the event who is terrified at being identified by peers and collea... Secondhand Smoke blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2222386 Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:47:00 +0100 2222386 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2160272&cid=t_105125_90_f&fid=34499&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcalifmedicineman.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F02%2Ftaking-trust-with-grain-of-sodium.html I was rather intrigued when a drug company representative showed up at my institution with some literature on a medication called Vaprisol manufactured by Astellas Pharma. This drug is one of a class of drugs called vasopressin receptor antagonists (VRA's) and is used to treat low blood sodium levels (also called hyponatremia).I may be the worst philistine in academia but to me, Vaprisol is a so-so solution in search of a problem. Hyponatremia is typically treated by first identifying its underlying cause. Once that cause is determined, treating it generally makes the hyponatremia go away or at least improve. And guess what? Even if the problem can't be cured, the chronically low sodium that results rarely causes serious problems by itself.That said, I can imagine rare scenarios whereby dr... California Medicine Man blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2160272 Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:53:00 +0100 2160272 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2035947&cid=t_105125_150_f&fid=35777&url=http%3A%2F%2Ffeeds.feedburner.com%2F%7Er%2FPharmalot%2F%7E3%2F482705218%2F Four years after an agreement supposedly ended a decade-long dispute between a Toronto physician Nancy Olivieri and Apotex, which accused her of badmouthing one of its drug, a new lawsuit has been filed by the drugmaker - and the Canadian Association of University Teachers is now accusing Apotex of trying to muzzle academic freedom. The CAUT says Apotex is trying to silence Olivieri, because its lawsuit, which was filed last month, lists a very broad range of examples in which the drugmaker claims the professor breached their 2004 agreement “not to disparate each other,” according to The Globe and Mail. The lawsuit cites such alleged infractions as attending conferences, chairing panels and having an entry in Wikipedia.” “What is so worrisome is that Apotex seems to... Pharmalot blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2035947 Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:06:01 +0100 2035947 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2026911&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F12%2Fdrug-company-claims-disparagement-by.html We have occasionally posted on what has come to be called the "Nancy Olivieri case," one of the most important cases of attempted suppression of clinical research from the 1990s. Briefly, Apotex, a pharmaceutical company, acted against Dr. Nancy Olivieri after she revealed preliminary data from a trial of deferiprone, a chelating agent for the treatment of iron overload in thalassemia, suggesting that the drug was often ineffective in treating iron overload, and appeared to be associated with hepatic fibrosis. Ultimately, a report by the Canadian Association of University Teachers also held that her academic freedom was abridged, in the context of a negotiation between the University of Toronto and Apotex over a large donation, and that the hospital harassed Dr. Olivieri during her dispute... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2026911 Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:07:00 +0100 2026911 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1968748&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F11%2Fsilverglate-on-how-corporate-academic.html This article suggests several important points.First, there is a growing realization that academia's mission is being increasingly subverted as the leadership of academic organizations, including, in particular, academic medicine, increasingly resembles corporate leadership. (We, of course, have repeatedly discussed the prominent movement in health policy in the 1980s that advocated breaking the "medical guild" while handing power over health care to bureaucrats and managers.)Second, there is a growing realization that academic leaders who ape their corporate peers have a penchant for propaganda promoting their interests, and for suppressing discussion of their faults. Clearly these are causes of the anechoic effect. Never mind that controlling speech and communication in this manner is an... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1968748 Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:22:00 +0100 1968748 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1859465&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F10%2Fthoughts-on-charles-nemeroffs-not-so.html The saga of Dr Charles Nemeroff was most recently discussed on Health Care Renewal here. We had first posted about his failure to disclose relevant conflicts of interest relating an article he wrote for a journal he also edited here. Other posts about Nemeroff's questionable behavior are here, here. Nemeroff has also starred in numerous posts on the Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry Blog, amongst others.Now the tale of how Nemeroff raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars as a paid speaker on behalf of drug marketers, and denied these earnings while he ran a US government funded project meant to evaluate some of the products of his commercial sponsors, has splashed across major newspapers. There has been a lot of good discussion about the case in the blogsphere. (We await, of course, dis... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1859465 Tue, 07 Oct 2008 21:19:00 +0100 1859465 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1825537&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F09%2Fbrown-university-student-journalists.html This article provided confirmation that Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and the US Senate Finance Committee is, in fact, investigating Dr Keller and Brown University in connection with the controversy. It also included other original reporting, including an acknowledgement from GlaxoSmithKline Director of US Media Relationships Sarah Alspach that the company had provided the committee with full information about the compensation it gave Dr Keller.The second provided a quite clear explanation of the allegations about the manipulation of Study 329. This article also included results of an interview with Dr Jon Jureidini, the author of an article that dissected study 329, and suggested that it had been manipulated to enhance the apparent benefits of paroxetine, and diminish its apparent ris... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1825537 Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:33:00 +0100 1825537 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1646781&cid=t_105125_150_f&fid=36939&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscientific-misconduct.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F07%2Fnottingham-university-goes-kerplunk.html I have posted previously about the embarrassment that has emanated from Nottingham University over recent weeks. The Nottingham saga related to a student who had in his possession a printout of terrorist material. The student was studying terrorism. The material was printed (and freely accessible) from a US government website.Why discuss this on a scientific integrity blog?It reflects the same system malfunction which leads lawyers and Vice Chancellors to make unprincipled anti-academic comments about the most basic safeguards of academia in science. Do I, as an academic, have the right to see, discuss, and properly assess data (mis)represented in my name by a commercial company? Are doctors prescribing drugs allowed to see and discuss the most fundamental aspects of science underlying tha... Scientific Misconduct Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1646781 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:29:00 +0100 1646781 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1581892&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34765&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhcrenewal.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F07%2Fmore-watchdogs-who-did-not-bark-ucu.html We posted first here in 2005, then here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here about the story of Dr Aubrey Blumsohn's dispute with Procter and Gamble (P&G) and the University of Sheffield in the UK. In summary, Blumsohn and Professor Richard Eastell had done clinical research on the risedronate (Actonel), sponsored by P&G, the drug's manufacturer. P&G refused Blumsohn access to the original data from the study he was ostensibly running, and hired a ghost-writer to write abstracts in his name. Some of the analyses done by P&G seemed biased in favor of the drug. Despite repeated attempts, P&G would not give Blumsohn access to the raw data of the project. Blumsohn protested to Eastell, who advised him not to make waves because P&G "is a good source of income" fo... Health Care Renewal blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1581892 Sat, 05 Jul 2008 20:23:00 +0100 1581892 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1473014&cid=t_105125_150_f&fid=36939&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscientific-misconduct.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F05%2Fproblems-at-nottingham-university.html This post is not about science. It is in support of a postgraduate student (Rizwaan Sabir) and an administrator (Hisham Yezza) at Nottingham University, a short drive from my home. Following my series of posts about MK-ULTRA research 50 years ago, Daniel Goldberg at the Medical Humanities Blog elaborated on the idea of state involvement as a necessary element in the most serious kinds of unethical human research. This can happen in several ways: a) some of the worst examples of unethical research have been carried out by the state itself, b) precedents set by the state create cynicism over professional ethical guidance which is administered by the state, and c) state functionaries (professional regulators, product regulators) play an important role in the suppression of concerns over uneth... Scientific Misconduct Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1473014 Wed, 28 May 2008 01:28:00 +0100 1473014 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1405310&cid=t_105125_87_f&fid=34825&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wesleyjsmith.com%2Fblog%2F2008%2F04%2Fstifling-scientific-heterodoxy.html All around the country and the world, scientists who don't fall in line on human cloning, global warming, neo-Darwinism, and other issues in which the Science Establishment demands lockstep thinking, find themselves being pushed aside--ironically, by the very types who vociferously criticize the Catholic Church for its treatment of Galileo. The latest example may be the dropping of hurricane expert Bill Gray from receiving PR support from Colorado State University because he is a global warming skeptic. From the story: By pioneering the science of seasonal hurricane forecasting and teaching 70 graduate students who now populate the National Hurricane Center and other research outposts, William Gray turned a city far from the stormy seas into a hurricane research mecca. But now the institut... Secondhand Smoke blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1405310 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:47:00 +0100 1405310 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1399636&cid=t_105125_150_f&fid=36939&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscientific-misconduct.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F04%2Fgardasil-scandal-university-of.html Just after my last post on the role of a University I read this piece in today's British Medical Journal about an appalling episode at the University of Queensland that goes right to the heart of what a University is. The University of Queensland has broken its contract with the scientific community. This is an absolute disgrace. I am reminded of the letters to me stating that I needed University "authorisation" to discuss issues of scientific procedure. I recall the warning of "public dissociation" and that "public interest disclosure legislation" somehow applied to discussion of scientific methodology involving Procter and Gamble. From the University secretary and registrar at Queensland (Douglas Porter) this most absurd of comments:Douglas Porter, wrote to Dr Gunn, asking him to provide... Scientific Misconduct Blog blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1399636 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 18:53:00 +0100 1399636 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1215179&cid=t_105125_90_f&fid=34499&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcalifmedicineman.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F02%2Funiversities-endowment-funds-and.html Here's an idea I hate (via the instapundit). Congress is considering regulating the amount of university endowments that schools may keep for themselves and how much they have to pass on to students (in the form of tuition cuts, financial aid, or scholarships). Do these guys really have this much time on their hands?Laws such as those being proposed give our legislature the bad name that it has. Why a private, non-profit organization such as a university endowment "needs" to be controlled by the federal government eludes me. Don't get me wrong. When I read that elite schools such as Harvard could pay the tuition of their entire student body on just the interest that their endowments earn, I find that reprehensible and a poor reflection of their governance. But that's their problem, not the... California Medicine Man blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1215179 Thu, 07 Feb 2008 18:29:00 +0100 1215179 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1047541&cid=t_105125_90_f&fid=34499&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcalifmedicineman.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F11%2Fis-glaxosmithkline-engaged-in-extortion.html (Source: California Medicine Man) California Medicine Man blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1047541 Fri, 23 Nov 2007 21:57:00 +0100 1047541 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=486956&cid=t_105125_107_f&fid=35026&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphylogenomics.blogspot.com%2F2007%2F03%2Fcontroversy-over-bp-deal-at-berkeley.html Apparently, there is a building controversy within Berkeley over the recently announced $500 million dollar deal with BP on a biofuel program. A series of articles (e.g., here) in the SF Chronicle have been reporting on the deal and the more recent ones are starting to document some potential issues with the deal. Also see the Berkeley Daily Planet commentary.From the Chron:UC Berkeley's $500 million energy research deal with oil giant BP took a pounding at a faculty forum Thursday, with a host of speakers critical of the unprecedented partnership -- some bitingly so.I am quite interested in this because although I think it is great that Berkeley/LBL are going to now be moving big time into biofuels research, I have heard and read a variety of things regarding this deal that make one want ... The Tree of Life blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=486956 Sat, 10 Mar 2007 07:26:00 +0100 486956