Opinion: After The Times’ revelations about a former dean, heads should roll at USC

To the editor: If this story about former Keck School of Medicine Dean Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, who apparently partied with drug users and criminals, is largely accurate, heads should roll at USC. (“The secret life of a USC dean,” July 17)

What a sordid tangle of debauchery, sickness, corruption and malfeasance.

Apparently, USC and other major universities overlook wrongdoing for the sake of money and prestige coming their way. The university is one more amoral institution in our increasingly corrupted society.

T.R. Jahns, Hemet

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To the editor: I confess that I read the entire piece on Puliafito and asked myself after finishing, “Am I reading The Times or a supermarket tabloid?”

Yes, Puliafito had a secret life. Lots of people have secret lives. All of the characters were willing participants. I will concede that the filming of some of his exploits was incredibly stupid and showed hubris.

But as you point out, Puliafito did great things for USC. This article will probably ruin his life. The Times should have loftier goals.

Doug Jones, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Beyond the sensational headline-grabbing contents of this article lies the much more important issue of the erosion of medicine’s professional standing in society.

As a faculty member of the White Memorial Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program, I discuss with our residents the unique standing physicians have in society. We have been given much autonomy to oversee our profession as part of a contract with society that depends on us holding ourselves accountable.

I am dismayed not by Puliafito’s personal faults, but by the number of physicians who were probably aware of some of his misconduct and may have let it go unreported. It may come out later that some physicians made efforts to report his inappropriate behavior, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they did not.

A cloak of silence in our profession slowly erodes society’s trust in us. This diminishes our standing, both in our offices with our patients and in public debates on healthcare reform.

Chris Hiromura, MD, Los Angeles

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