The TLDR: This is the story of how two of the most prestigious medical journals in the world were conned by an Indian CEO of an obscure company with a shady background. Also in the mix: His brother-in-law and a leading cardiac surgeon.
The 2 medical studies
Over the past week, Lancet Journal and the New England Journal of Medicine published an “expression of concern”—i.e. questioned the veracity of—over two studies each had published.
Both were on the subject of Covid-19 treatment. The NEJM study looked at the effect of blood pressure medication on Covid patients. The Lancet paper—which became a bigger deal—claimed that the anti-malarial drug Hydroxychloroquine was both ineffective and unsafe—triggering dangerous side-effects when used to treat Covid.
Both studies also had a common set of authors: three doctors of Indian origin.
The 3 Indian doctors
Here are the NRIs at the heart of the scandal, some more implicated in this mess than the others:
Mandeep Mehra: was the lead author of both studies, and he has a golden resume. A graduate of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, he is currently a professor at Harvard Medical School. He is also the medical director at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
Amit Patel: was until recently an unpaid adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah. He has since since been “terminated.” But more importantly, he is also the brother-in-law of the man right at the heart of this scandal: Sapan Desai. And he is the one who introduced Desai to Mehra—thereby setting in motion this great scandal.
Sapan Desai: is the CEO of Surgisphere, a little-known company that claims to run the largest and fastest hospital database in the world. A vascular surgeon, he is currently named in three malpractice suits. He originally started Surgisphere as a company to market textbooks—which ran into trouble on Amazon. The reason: the listings included fake reviews from leading physicians. But that didn’t stop either Desai or Surgisphere from climbing to global prominence.
The problem with Surgisphere
Both studies were based on data collected by Surgisphere. The Lancet study, for example, based its conclusions on information allegedly gathered from 96,000 patients in 671 hospitals across the world.
Except soon after its publication, a Guardian investigation made clear that all was not right with either Surgisphere or its data. The study said it used information from five Australian hospitals which recorded 600 Australian cases and 73 deaths as of April 21. Except there had been only 67 Covid fatalities as of that date.
Further investigation revealed a series of other embarrassing facts about Surgisphere. For example:
An employee listed as a science editor appears to be a science fiction author and fantasy artist whose professional profile suggests writing is her fulltime job. Another employee listed as a marketing executive is an adult model and events hostess, who also acts in videos for organisations.
Also: The ‘get in touch’ link on Surgisphere’s homepage redirects to a WordPress template for a cryptocurrency website 🤦♀️ .
The end result: Three of the other authors—including Mehra—asked the journals to retract the studies, saying they “can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources.”
The problem with Lancet et al
All of this turned the spotlight on the journals themselves—and their review process. How did this little-known company—as one doctor put it—“[come] out of nowhere to conduct perhaps the most influential global study in this pandemic in the matter of a few weeks”?
The problem lies with fundamental flaws with the publishing process—even among the most prestigious scientific journals in the world. And it’s been made worse by the pandemic:
The end result…
So this is where we are at the end of this entire saga:
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