PRESS RELEASE
Burlington, Vermont - March 17, 2005
The United States Attorney's Office for the District of Vermont, the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector
General (OIG) and Office of Research Integrity (ORI) announced today
that Dr. Eric T. Poehlman, 49, a former tenured research professor at
the University of Vermont (UVM) College of Medicine in Burlington,
Vermont, has agreed to a comprehensive criminal, civil, and
administrative settlement related to his scientific misconduct in
falsifying and fabricating research data in numerous federal grant
applications and in academic articles from 1992 to 2002.
According to court documents filed today, Dr. Poehlman has agreed to
plead guilty to making material false statements in a research grant
application in April 1999, upon which the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) paid $542,000 for Dr. Poehlman's research activities. ! In
addition, Dr. Poehlman has agreed to pay $180,000 to settle a civil
complaint related to numerous false grant applications he filed while at
UVM. In addition, Dr. Poehlman will pay $16,000 in attorney's fees to
counsel for Walter F. DeNino, a research assistant whose complaint of
scientific misconduct spurred an investigation by UVM. Also, Dr.
Poehlman has agreed to be barred for life from seeking or receiving
funding from any federal agency in the future, including all components
of the Public Health Service, and to submit numerous letters of
retraction and correction to scientific journals related to his
scientific misconduct. Dr. Poehlman also agreed to be permanently
excluded from participation in all Federal health care programs. In
these agreements, Dr. Poehlman has admitted that he acted alone in
falsifying and fabricating research data and filing false grant
applications.
"Preserving the integrity of the grant process administered by the
Public Health Ser! vice is a priority for the Department of Justice,"
said United! States Attorney David V. Kirby. "This prosecution
demonstrates that academic researchers will be held fully accountable
for fraud and scientific misconduct. Dr. Poehlman fraudulently diverted
millions of dollars from the Public Health Service to support his
research projects. This in turn siphoned millions of dollars from the
pool of resources available for valid scientific research proposals. As
this prosecution proves, such conduct will not be tolerated."
Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, Cristina V. Beato, M.D.,
acknowledges the "invaluable assistance of the Department of Justice in
bringing this case to a conclusion and upholding the high standards for
research integrity in research supported by the Public Health Service."
HHS actions against Dr. Poehlman include a life time debarment from
receiving Public Health Service research funds and an agreement to
retract or correct ten scientific articles due to research misconduct.
Dr. Beato added that "while criminal char! ges against research
scientists are rare, the egregiousness of Dr. Poehlman's conduct in this
case fully supports the actions of the U.S. Attorney's Office and the
administrative actions taken by HHS." Through ORI, HHS is authorized to
investigate and oversee institutional investigations of allegations of
research misconduct in order to protect the integrity of Public Health
Service funded research.
Dr. Poehlman will appear for arraignment and to plead guilty to the
criminal charge filed today at a date to be determined by the Court. Dr.
Poehlman faces up to five years imprisonment on the criminal charge, but
the United States has agreed to take no position on a request by Dr.
Poehlman to receive a more lenient sentence based upon his cooperation
with authorities and his acceptance of responsibility. The civil
settlement agreement will become effective after approval by the Court.
The administrative settlement will be effective immediately.
A. Dr. Poehlman's Research Activi! ties and Scientific Misconduct
From 1987 to 2001, Dr. Poehlman held various research positions as an
assistant, associate, and full professor of medicine at the UVM College
of Medicine in Burlington, Vermont (1987-1993; 1996-2001), and the
University of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland (1993-1996). In these
academic positions, Dr. Poehlman conducted research on human subjects
related to exercise physiology and other topics that was funded
primarily by grants from federal public health agencies and departments,
including the NIH, the U.S. Department of Agriculture ("USDA"😉, and the
Department of Defense.
From in or about 1992 to 2000, Dr. Poehlman submitted seventeen (17)
research grant applications to federal agencies or departments that
included false and fabricated research data. In these grant
applications, Dr. Poehlman requested approximately $11.6 million in
federal research funding. In most cases, Dr. Poehlman falsified and
fabricated research data in the "pr! eliminary studies" sections of
grant applications in order to support the scientific basis for and his
expertise in conducting the proposed research. Reviewers of these grant
applications relied on the accuracy of the "preliminary studies" to
determine if a grant should be recommended for award. While many of the
grant applications were not awarded, NIH and USDA expended approximately
$2.9 million in research funding based on grant applications with false
and fabricated research data.
Dr. Poehlman falsified and fabricated research data in grant
applications and research papers related to several topics including his
study of the impact of the menopause transition on women's metabolism
("the Longitudinal Menopause Study"😉, his study of the impact of aging
in older men and women on a wide range of physical and metabolic
measures ("the Longitudinal Study of Aging"😉, and his proposal to study
the impact of hormone replacement therapy ("HRT"😉 on obesity in
post-menopausa! l women ("the Prospective HRT Study"😉. Dr. Poehlman also
prese! nted fal sified and fabricated data in grant applications and
academic papers related to his study of metabolism in Alzheimer's
patients and the effect of endurance training on metabolism.
B. The Longitudinal Menopause Study: 1994-2000
Beginning in 1994, Dr. Poehlman began presenting research data to
academic colleagues that was purportedly from a study of women who were
tested for basic metabolic characteristics before and after their
transition through menopause. Dr. Poehlman presented the findings of the
purported Longitudinal Menopause Study in an academic paper entitled
"Changes in Energy Balance and Body Composition at Menopause: A
Controlled Longitudinal Study," which was published by the Annals of
Internal Medicine in 1995 ("the 1995 Annals Article"😉. The purported
Longitudinal Menopause Study and the 1995 Annals Article were based
almost entirely on falsified and fabricated research data. Dr. Poehlman
represent! ed in the 1995 Annals Article that he had tested 35 healthy
women for basic metabolic characteristics and retested the same women
six years later for the same characteristics. In fact, Dr. Poehlman
falsified and fabricated test results for all but three of the 35 women
in the study. From 1995 to 2000, Dr. Poehlman used the false and
fabricated research data from the Longitudinal Menopause Study and the
Annals Article in nine NIH grant applications, two USDA grant
applications, and an additional six published academic papers, which
were often cited in the grant applications.
C. The Longitudinal Study of Aging: 1996-2000
In 1996, Dr. Poehlman initiated a new project where he planned to
recruit subjects who had previously been tested at UVM from 1987 to 1993
and retest them for the same and additional physical and metabolic
characteristics over time. Beginning in 1999, Dr. Poehlman began
presenting falsified and! fabricated data from this Longitudinal Study
on Aging to seek! additio nal federally-funded grants for his research
projects. In these grant applications, Dr. Poehlman exaggerated the
number of subjects tested and changed the values for the physical
characteristics of the subjects and the test results for these subjects
(often reversing the values from the initial test and the retest) in
order to create trends during the aging process that were not reflected
in the actual research data. In 1999 and 2000, Dr. Poehlman presented
the same or similar false research data in three grant applications to
the NIH and to the USDA.
D. The Prospective Hormone Replacement Therapy ("HRT"😉 Study: 1999-2000
Beginning in 1996, Dr. Poehlman was a co-investigator on a study at UVM
designed to evaluate the effect of HRT on 20 post-menopausal women over
several years time. Among other things, the study had double-blind
controls so that the researchers and the patients were unaware of any
test results! (or even who received HRT or the placebo) until the study
was completed in 2002. In 1999 and 2000, Dr. Poehlman used data
purportedly from the Prospective HRT Study in two grant applications to
NIH seeking federal funding for additional HRT studies. In fact, Dr.
Poehlman did not have access to the data and just fabricated the
preliminary test results in the grant applications.
E. UVM and Federal Investigations: 2000-2004
Beginning in December 2000 and continuing until April 2002, the UVM
College of Medicine conducted an investigation of scientific misconduct
by Dr. Poehlman while at UVM. The investigation began in response to
allegations of scientific misconduct by Walter F. Denino, one of
Poehlman's research assistants. During the course of this investigation,
Dr. Poehlman destroyed electronic evidence of his falsifications and
fabrications, presented false testimony, presented falsified documents,
and infl! uenced other witnesses to provide false documents to the
inves! tigating authorities. In September 2001, Dr. Poehlman resigned
from UVM and moved to Montreal, Canada to work as an academic
researcher. Dr. Poehlman has subsequently left his academic position in
Canada.
Following the UVM investigation, the matter was referred to the United
States Attorney's Office and the ORI within the Public Health Service.
Scientists at ORI working with investigators at OIG-HHS and the United
States Attorney's Office then conducted a far-reaching investigation
into all of Dr. Poehlman's grant applications and scientific
publications. As a result of this investigation, Dr. Poehlman agreed to
enter into the comprehensive criminal, civil, and administrative
settlement filed in U.S. District Court today.
The United States Attorney's Office wishes to recognize the hard work
and dedication of UVM professors and staff who conducted the initial
investigation of Dr. Poehlman's scientific misconduct. A redacted
version of the UVM Investigative Report is inc! luded in the court
documents filed today. As part of the agreements filed today, Dr.
Poehlman has accepted the findings in the UVM Investigative Report.
ORI and the U.S. Attorney's Office also acknowledge the important role
that individual scientists have in identifying and responding to
research misconduct. ORI depends largely on the assistance of honest
research scientists in the lab in discovering and reporting suspected
misconduct, as occurred in this case. Without their assistance, ORI and
HHS would have great difficulty in taking appropriate actions to protect
the public health.
The United States Attorney's Office also wishes to recognize the
professionalism and tireless efforts of the scientific and criminal
investigators at the ORI and the OIG, and the attorneys in the Office of
General Counsel at HHS.
Dr. Poehlman is represented by Robert B. Hemley, Esq., and Andrew D.
Manitsky, Esq., of Gravel and Shea in Burlington, Vermont. The criminal
a! nd civil cases are being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys C! arol
L. Shea and Stephen D. Kelly.
--
Will Brink @ http://www.brinkzone.com/