UCI Planning Reforms Amid Cadaver Fiasco

The doctor that UC Irvine has tapped to revamp its problem-plagued Willed Body Program said Saturday that the university will install a new record-keeping system, create strict oversight of human remains and consider adding staff.

The changes, which should take effect within two weeks, come a day after UCI announced it had fired the director of the program and was investigating whether parts of bodies donated to UCI were improperly sold.

University officials also are trying to determine whether families that requested the cremated remains of relatives received them, but they have been hampered by poor record-keeping.

The district attorney’s office has opened an embezzlement investigation of the former director, Christopher S. Brown, related to the sale of six spines to a hospital in Phoenix. Brown, 27, denies the charges.

“We’re aware of the big problems,” said Dr. Peter Lawrence, a UCI professor of surgery who now oversees the program that handles cadavers donated to the university for research and educational uses. “We need to have more direct involvement in the day-to-day activities.”

Among the changes being contemplated:

* A new computer system that better tracks the comings and goings of cadavers and cremated ashes through the office. This system would create backup records in case of a malfunction. University officials said the office’s current computer was crippled by a virus.

* Having two people instead of one running the program’s day-to-day affairs, providing an added level of oversight.

* In addition, the office would report to a medical school professor, perhaps an anatomy teacher who frequents the lab as part of his instruction. Brown, who was trained as a funeral director and embalmer, ran the office by himself.

Brown was one of three people who applied for the $33,000-a-year job at UCI three years ago. The ad said applicants needed to be a licensed embalmer and a funeral director, a job that typically pays about $50,000 in the private sector.

Medical school Dean Thomas Cesario said many people work at UCI for less than what they could get elsewhere. “They work here for the job security,” he said. “It’s a pleasant place to work, and there are good benefits.”

Investigators scouring the Willed Body Program have been hampered by data missing from Brown’s computer. Brown told The Times that a virus ravaged his system in April.

University officials have confirmed the virus problem but say Brown never reported it until they confronted him with questions about the program. Brown said he did tell medical officials, but they were unconcerned.

Without the records, Cesario said, it is difficult to determine how the bodies were handled or whether ashes were properly returned to relatives.

The university will try to re-create those records using death certificates and other documents, Lawrence said.

UCI receives about 75 cadavers a year. It uses 50 to 55 of them, and the rest are sent to other colleges and hospitals, which pay a preparation fee. Over the three years that Brown ran the program, UCI received about 225 cadavers. But only a small percentage of those making the donations requested that the cremated remains be returned.

UCI has sent letters to 34 families that had requested the return of the remains of their loved ones.

Since research centers request more cadavers than are available, UCI prioritizes who should receive them, Lawrence said.

UCI also is examining whether Brown provided cadavers to an off-campus note-taking firm that offers an anatomy class for students hoping to attend medical school.

The company, Replica Notes, says on its Web site that its class offers “training and study with a human cadaver.”

“These are the questions that we and the Orange County district attorney are looking into,” said Andrew Porterfield, a spokesman for the medical school.

A note on the door Saturday said Replica was closed until the new quarter begins.

University officials became concerned about the Willed Body Program after finding an expense-account item in which Brown charged the school for a June trip to Phoenix. Brown went to Arizona to deliver six spine segments to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, which provided a $5,000 check made payable to Health Medical Services.

UCI officials say they do not recognize that firm.

According to Brown, Health Medical Services has been under contract with the medical school for nearly a year, delivering cadavers and body parts. Cesario said Saturday the Phoenix trip was the only instance he knew of in which the company was used.

For a short time last year, Brown was a part owner of the company, which was then called Harry’s Transportation.

The Tustin man said he pulled out when he realized it might be a conflict of interest, selling the van that he had bought for the business.

After Brown left, the company changed its name.

University officials suspect that Brown might have financial interest in other companies that worked with the program, a charge Brown denies.

Though the extent of problems with the Willed Body Program is not yet known, the revelations are the latest in a string of scandals at the medical center over the last five years, beginning with the theft of human eggs from unwitting patients at a UCI fertility clinic that drew national attention.

Since then, at least two professors have quit the medical school amid allegations of research impropriety in unrelated incidents.

And this summer, another researcher resigned after being accused of spreading a radioactive substance on a colleague’s chair.

Cesario, the school’s dean, said the history has “been very stressful” and indicated that he is concerned about the reputation of the school.

UCI officials have established a hotline for families of donors: (800) 758-4102.

Times staff writers Bonnie Harris and Kate Folmar contributed to this report.