Dr Atul Goel has been accused of presenting fabricated data in international journal; probe panel will be set up.
Neurosurgeon Dr Atul Goel, who is facing charges of using poor patients to try his device to treat cervical spondylosis without approval from the ethics committee, has now been accused of a more serious offence: Publishing forged and inflated data in an international journal to establish his device.
"So much has already been written about [not obtaining] the ethics committee’s approval. Why do you want to open a new case when the chapter is closed? Please don't publish this," Dr Goel, head of neurosurgery at KEM Hospital, told DNA.
He has developed a device called Goel cervical facet and a new method for surgery of cervical spondylosis (neck pain).
“Dr Goel had presented forged facts and pictures in his research paper that was published in the June issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine," said a top official at KEM.
The journal is followed by neurosurgeons worldwide.
“In the paper, published in the journal, Dr Goel claimed that he had successfully operated upon 36 patients using this new method and device between 2006 and February 2010. He also claimed that all he had followed up with all his patients for six to 17 months and they were doing well,” said an official privy to the developments.
“But, Dr Goel’s colleagues claimed that he had performed the first operation with his device in June 2010. In 2006, he had carried out three surgeries, but with a different device and in 2010, he did seven surgeries with his device. As any journal accepts a paper only when sample size is big enough, Dr Goel had inflated the number of patients.”
The MRI and CT scans he had presented in the paper are also allegedly fake and obtained just after operation and not after 10 months.
Dr Goel is already facing charges of not informing his patients that they were part of a trial and not obtaining the approval of the ethics committee, which are international protocol for any new procedure or device tried on humans.
He allegedly also forced patients to pay Rs30,000 for the device to the General Surgical Company directly. A conventional device costs just Rs5,000.
An anonymous email, which was circulated among among neurosurgeons, emphasised the fraud step by step. “This will ruin the credibility of Indian scientists in the world,” said a top city neurosurgeon, on condition of anonymity.
After keeping mum on the issue for two days, Dr Sanjay Oak, dean of KEM Hospital, said: “Yes, we will investigate the fraud allegations, too. Dr Shubhangi Parkar is on the job.”
Dr Shubhangi Parkar, a neurologist at KEM, said: “Fraud in research is a serious allegation. We need to choose the right experts who can investigate the records carefully. A committee will soon be formed.”
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