Feds Discipline Ex-Harvard Prof for Falsifying Sleep Research
A physician and former professor at Harvard Medical School has been disciplined by an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for faking data in a sleep apnea study funded by federal research grants.
Dr. Robert Fogel fabricated and falsified data “so that those data would better conform to his hypothesis,” reports the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog, quoting from information provided by the Office of Research Integrity at HHS.
“I moved numbers around to make the data look like there was something there,” Fogel tells the Scientist (reg. req.). “I never really thought through the consequences, and once I did this I got myself into a loop that I found I couldn’t get out of.”
An ORI case summary details the disciplinary measures taken against Fogel under a voluntary settlement. They include a three-year moratorium, beginning on March 16, on Fogel serving in an advisory capacity to the U.S. Public Health Service and special supervision and research certification requirements, during the same period, for PHS-related research projects in which Fogel is involved.
