My previous post was about a fake scientific bone journal produced by Elsevier and paid for by Merck.
I thought it interesting to look at the editorial board - and at the names of my previous esteemed academic colleagues within the bone field who would lend their names to such fakery. The fake editorial board (see here) of this fake journal includes some well known luminaries (Reid, Seeman, Ebeling).
As an aside, Professor Peter Brooks was Executive Dean of Health Sciences at the University of Queensland at the time the University came down hard on Dr Andrew Gunn for asking scientific questions in public about a Merck drug which earns the University a mint (Brooks was not one of the bullies).
Also of interest is the regular appearance of clinicians who held postdoctoral positions at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota) from 1975 to 1985 in the list of clinicians involved in dubious practices in the field of osteoporosis. In this instance, even though this is an Australasian list, there are two such appearances (Peter Ebeling and Ego Seeman both trained at the Mayo under Professor Larry Riggs).
Editorial board of "The Australasian Journal of Bone and Joint Medicine"
Dr Jim Bertouch
Consultant Rheumatologist, NSW
Professor Peter Brooks
Executive Dean (Health Sciences)
University of Queensland
Professor Richard Day
St Vincent's Hospital, NSW
Professor Peter Ebeling
Royal Melbourne Hospital
Professor John Hart
Monash University
Professor Michael Hooper
Concord Repatriation General Hospital
Sydney
Dr Julien de Jager
Professor Geoff Littlejohn
Monash Medical Centre
Dr Peter Nash
Professor Nicholas Pocock
St Vincent's Hospital, NSW
Professor Ian Reid
University of Auckland
New Zealand
Professor Philip Sambrook
Sydney University
Professor I Ego Seeman
Austin and Repatriation Medical Centre
Professor David Sonnabend
Royal North Shore Hospital
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4 comments:
It is ashame that the so-called professionals of today will risk their name and reputation for such misguided ventures. Lack of integrity at worst or no attention to detail at best! Do they treat their patients with similar cavalier actions?
Another member of the editorial board was Professor Ric Day, Chair of the Australian Government's Pharmaceutical Health and Rational Use of Medicines (PHARM) Committee from 1999 to 2008 – in other words, arguably the most influential pharmacologist in Australia.
He has also been a board member for Pfizer (perhaps he would argue that relationships with multiple pharmaceutical companies neutralise conflict of interest).
Unfortunately, partnership with the pharmaceutical industry is enshrined in Australia's National Medicines Policy. Day is one of its most fervent advocates.
This fake journal is just an extreme example of the sort of partnership that is fostered by this policy. Less extreme examples win awards from the Australian Government.
Ebeling appears to have also been used by Merck to argue for Australian PBAC approval for Merck drugs
Pierre Delmas, the greatest ever snake-oil salesmen in the field of osteoporosis was also from the Mayo Clinic (Larry Riggs)
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