An STLToday article reveals that two Mizzou doctors plagiarized at least a third of a research paper on irregular heartbeats:
The editor of the medical sciences journal said the similarities between the two papers are “obvious and significant,” according to the blog Retraction Watch, which first reported the incident.
The retraction marks the latest problem for the MU medical school, already under a federal fraud investigation for illegal billing by two radiologists. Dr. Kenneth Rall and Dr. Michael Richards were dismissed in May after an internal audit found they had billed Medicare for services that were performed by residents, doctors who receive specialty training in the three to seven years after medical school.
A STLToday article reports that two Mizzou doctors plagarized a research paper on irregular heartbeats:
At the time, the school’s dean, Dr. Robert Churchill, announced his plans to step down in October after less than three years in the position.
Churchill was brought on as dean in October 2009 after the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education placed the school’s residency programs on probation. The council cited a lack of funds and poor record-keeping as reasons for the probation, an action it hands down to only a few schools each year.
The council also criticized the school for allowing medical residents to take on noneducational duties such as scheduling patient appointments.
While cheating is nothing new at Mizzou it does seem a little odd that these two doctor’s wouldn’t expect anyone to notice a report that uses this much plagiarized material.
It is also interesting that the school’s residency department suffers from “lack of funds” when the school recently announced a $200 million plan to improve the athletic facilities. Maybe they could apply the money they are stealing from war vets to the residency program.
