pRIMrose
04-13-2003, 07:17 AM
By ROBERT PEAR
New York Times.com
April 13, 2003
WASHINGTON, April 12 — The Bush administration has ordered a nationwide review of medical research at 115 veterans' hospitals and has halted some studies after investigators found serious violations of federal rules, including some that may have contributed to the deaths of patients.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said it was investigating the deaths of patients in research projects at hospitals in Detroit, Albany and Fargo, N.D. The department also said it had found "serious noncompliance" with federal rules at its hospitals in Pittsburgh; Providence, R.I.; Martinez, Calif.; and Long Beach, Calif, and detected problems at hospitals in Northampton, Mass., and Portland, Ore.
The new director of the veterans research program, Dr. Nelda P. Wray, ordered the review last month after learning of cases in which researchers falsified data and did not tell patients about the risks of experimental treatments. "Those practices will not be tolerated," Dr. Wray said.
Research is one of the principal missions of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which spends nearly $1 billion a year on about 15,000 studies involving 150,000 patients. Ethics committees are supposed to monitor each study to protect patients.
An internal investigation by the department found that a huge overdose of a prescription drug "led to the death of a research participant in a clinical trial" at the veterans' hospital in Detroit last year.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/national/13VETS.html?th=&pagewanted=all&position=top" target="_blank"> Members of Congress recently introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen the research compliance office after learning that the Bush administration was considering a proposal to reduce its autonomy.
</a>
Is President Bush the only one who is minding the store these days? http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif
New York Times.com
April 13, 2003
WASHINGTON, April 12 — The Bush administration has ordered a nationwide review of medical research at 115 veterans' hospitals and has halted some studies after investigators found serious violations of federal rules, including some that may have contributed to the deaths of patients.
The Department of Veterans Affairs said it was investigating the deaths of patients in research projects at hospitals in Detroit, Albany and Fargo, N.D. The department also said it had found "serious noncompliance" with federal rules at its hospitals in Pittsburgh; Providence, R.I.; Martinez, Calif.; and Long Beach, Calif, and detected problems at hospitals in Northampton, Mass., and Portland, Ore.
The new director of the veterans research program, Dr. Nelda P. Wray, ordered the review last month after learning of cases in which researchers falsified data and did not tell patients about the risks of experimental treatments. "Those practices will not be tolerated," Dr. Wray said.
Research is one of the principal missions of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which spends nearly $1 billion a year on about 15,000 studies involving 150,000 patients. Ethics committees are supposed to monitor each study to protect patients.
An internal investigation by the department found that a huge overdose of a prescription drug "led to the death of a research participant in a clinical trial" at the veterans' hospital in Detroit last year.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/13/national/13VETS.html?th=&pagewanted=all&position=top" target="_blank"> Members of Congress recently introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen the research compliance office after learning that the Bush administration was considering a proposal to reduce its autonomy.
</a>
Is President Bush the only one who is minding the store these days? http://gopusa.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tqrolleyes.gif