RESEARCHER: Doctor Said to Have Falsified Data Now Practices in N.Y. : Researcher Who UCSD Says Falsified Data Is Now N.Y. Cardiologist
Dr. Robert Slutsky, the cardiac researcher who recently resigned from UC San Diego and left California amid allegations that he had falsified heart research data, is working as a full-time cardiologist with a medical group on Long Island, N.Y.
Dr. Peter Schwartz, assistant director of the East Nassau Medical Group in Hicksville, N.Y., said Monday that he had not known of the allegations about Slutsky’s research but doubted that they would jeopardize his practice with the group.
“His research background doesn’t really apply to us,” Schwartz said in a telephone interview from his home. “We are a group practicing clinical medicine. Anything he wanted to do as research would be on his own time.”
The university’s allegations also appear not to have affected Slutsky’s licenses to practice medicine in California or New York. State officials said his California license remains valid. He was granted a New York license July 1.
Arkie Giroux, assistant director of New York State’s Division of Professional Licensing, said that, in general, the state considers revoking a license only after a doctor is convicted of a crime, loses his license in another state or is the subject of complaints about patient treatment.
It could not be determined Monday whether New York State officials had known of the allegations against Slutsky when he applied for his license or after it was granted.
A California licensing official said he would ask his office to contact UCSD if it had not already done so. “Fraud is fraud,” said Ronald Kraemer of the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance, who said that the alleged acts, if true, could constitute “unprofessional behavior” worthy of possible board action. “Are there degrees of fraud?” Kraemer asked. “I assume there probably are.”
Slutsky, a 36-year-old cardiologist who had been up for appointment as cardiac radiologist at the UCSD School of Medicine, submitted his resignation April 30 after professors considering him for promotion found questionable data in his published research, an associate dean said last week.
Associate Dean Paul J. Friedman said an investigating committee then found falsification of research data in two recent reports--two published, one unpublished--by Slutsky. A committee has been named to investigate all of the approximately 120 papers published by Slutsky, Friedman said.
None of the committees has alleged any problems with Slutsky’s treatment of patients while he was at UCSD.
Slutsky has not answered phone messages left at his office and home since last week. His family has referred callers to his New York City lawyer, who also has not answered repeated messages.
According to Schwartz, Slutsky was hired earlier this summer by the medical group, about 80 doctors affiliated with Syosset Community Hospital. Slutsky’s “base of operations” is the hospital’s intensive care unit, but he also sees patients at the group facility in Hicksville, Schwartz said.
Schwartz said the group checks doctors’ credentials and references carefully before hiring them but he said that he was in a separate department so he did not know the details of Slutsky’s case. The head of Slutsky’s department, who is also the group’s medical director, could not be reached at his office or home Monday.
“We would be very concerned if there were any question about fraud in his medical documentation or medical training, or anything medical as far as patient care,” Schwartz said. He said he had not known about the allegations against Slutsky and would discuss them with others at the group practice.
However, he said the academic allegations would be weighed against Slutsky’s clinical work.
“We would have to consider his performance with the group and his care of his patients. I couldn’t tell you what our decision would be now,” he said. “I think he’s an excellent physician, through what little contact I’ve had with him in the past two months.”
In California, Kraemer said he could not say whether his office was investigating Slutsky because all investigations are confidential. But he said his office would have seen newspaper articles about Slutsky and would normally proceed by contacting the university, interviewing the people making the allegations and interviewing the subject.
“I would say that if true, it is unprofessional conduct and could be grounds for disciplinary action,” he said. The action available to the Board of Medical Quality Assurance ranges from public reprimand to license revocation.
The most serious forms of misconduct are those that harm patients physically, Kraemer said. Those that do “economic harm” are considered less serious by the board, he said.
“If there does not appear to be any physical harm to the public, then it would have to fall into the lesser category,” Kraemer said. “You have to understand that it could be elevated if other physicians were using his research data and treating patients based on his research data.”
University officials do not believe that that has happened, Friedman has said.
Slutsky moved to California in 1970 to attend UCLA Medical School, and spent most of his 15 years in San Diego completing residencies in internal medicine, cardiology and radiology at UCSD.
