See also by Thomas O. Meehan: Patels From Hell: Importing Fraud From The Indian Subcontinent and Why Does America Tolerate Indian Immigrant Medical Fraud?
This week, Duke University and Dr. Anil Potti will go on trial for falsifying research in an experimental cancer treatment. The suit was brought by the estate of Juliet Jacobs, a cancer patient who died after participating in a clinical trial [Potti’s junk science trial delayed because of illness, by Jason deBruyn, Triangle Business Journal, January 26, 2015] But the real story is not the trial, but how the American medical establishment willfully ignored an Indian immigrant doctor falsifying his research, leading to worthless data, hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted, and the possibility that cancer patients received mistaken treatment. And there’s no way of knowing how much more of this fraud is out there.
The case of Dr. Anil Potti is merely the latest example in an endless chronicle of Indian immigrant professional shenanigans. Dr. Potti was born in May 1972 in Hyderabad and graduated from Christian Medical College, Vellore India in 1995. Because we all know that medicine is something the Americans won’t do, he finished his internship in Internal Medicine at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine in 1999. In 2006 he completed training in hematology and oncology at Duke University [Anil Potti Licensee Information, Education, Certifications, & Area of Practice, North Carolina Medical Board, April 15, 2014].
Dr. Potti and his colleague Dr. Joseph Nevins developed a prediction model that aimed to allow cancer treatment based on the genetics contained within a sample from a tumor. They attempted to monetize this alleged accomplishment by starting a company named CancerGuide and raising $10.5 million.
CancerGuide even formed a partnership with Duke University to pursue “dramatic advances in the management of cancer treatment.” [Duke, Durham’s CancerGuide in alliance, by James Gallagher, Triangle Business Journal, April 6, 2010]
However, The Cancer Letter, a weekly publication for specialists, reported that Potti had overstated his credentials by claiming to have been a Rhodes Scholar. Potti was suspended and the cancer studies he was conducting were halted. More importantly, researchers around the country started questioning the research Potti’s team was producing. [Duke Scientist Suspended Over Rhodes Scholarship Claim, by Natasha Singer, New York Times, July 20, 2010]
The eventual result: much of Potti’s work was completely retracted. Anything based on non-reproducible data had to be scrapped [The Anil Potti retraction record so far, by Ivan Orlansky, Retraction Watch February 14, 2012.] He was reprimanded by both the North Carolina and Missouri medical boards. [Potti reprimanded by Missouri medical board, The Duke Chronicle, March 11, 2012]. Duke returned $729,000 to the American Cancer Society.
Amazingly, however, Potti continued to practice medicine. He resurfaced at a cancer center in South Carolina [Cancer researcher Potti loses his S.C. job, by Jason deBruyn, Triangle Business Journal, February 22, 2012]. After he was forced to leave there, he ended up reportedly ended up working in North Dakota as a medical oncologist at another cancer center [Potti now working in North Dakota, Triangle Business Journal, August 20, 2012].
