Dementia Facility Forced to Alter Research Methods
The state Department of Health Services has forced a local facility for dementia patients to change its procedures because of complaints against UC Irvine medical professors performing research there.
The researchers were taking samples from the noses and rectums of patients without their consent or that of their guardians. The samples were part of a project to check for the spread of germs resistant to antibiotics.
The family of an 86-year-old patient at the John Douglas French Center for Alzheimer’s Disease filed a lawsuit this week based on similar complaints. Among the defendants in the suit are three UCI professors, Dr. Yee-Lean Lee, Dr. Lauri Thrupp, Dr. Laura Mosqueda and the French center.
Diana Eastman, director of public relations for the French Center, said the facility’s policy has always required consent for an invasive or experimental procedure or one that involved risk to the patient. She said taking the samples in the UCI project was not considered invasive.
Eastman said that under the new policy, consent will be required for patients involved in any research project, even if it includes only looking at the patients’ charts.
The change came after state officials contacted the center and asked its officials to come up with a plan of correction.
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