Alan Lippman, MD: Medical Research Misconduct: A Challenge to Scientific Integrity

Clinical research involving human subject volunteers is not infrequently confounded by ethical transgressions that may cause scientific progress to be tainted in a way that undermines and devalues otherwise beneficial achievements.

In this talk, I examine six noteworthy historical examples that illustrate the ethical challenges to otherwise well-intentioned investigators that could potentially taint or devalue their achievements.  These include (1) The Infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study; (2) The HeLa Cells of Henrietta Lacks; (3) Jonas Salk’s Vaccine Studies; (4) Behavioral Research Involving Twins; (5) Jesse Gelsinger and Gene Studies; and (6) The J. Marion Sims Controversy.  Other examples abound.

These cases highlight the importance of maintaining scientific integrity in the performance of human subject research and raise questions and concerns regarding the historical context in which such research may be conducted. 

ALAN J. LIPPMAN, MD, FACP

Alan J. Lippman is a 1965 graduate of Hahnemann Medical College (now Drexel University), did his medical residency at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, and was a Fellow in Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.  Now retired, he spent his 47-year professional career practicing medical oncology (cancer medicine), including direct patient care and conducting clinical trials of cancer chemotherapy.  He was a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School.)

Dr. Lippman served on the Bioethics Committees of the Medical Society of New Jersey and on those of the hospitals with which he was affiliated.  He was Chair of the Institutional Review Board (Clinical Research Committee) at Newark Beth Israel.