Background: Previous studies have reported that as many as one third of applicants misrepresent their publication record on residency or fellowship applications.
Objective: To determine the incidence of potentially fraudulent (or "phantom") research publications among applicants to a colorectal surgery residency program.
Design: Electronic Residency Application Services applications were reviewed. All listed publications were tabulated and checked whether they were published using various search engines.
Setting: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Patients: Applicants from 2006 to 2008.
Main Outcome Measures: We searched for phantom publications, defined as peer review journal citations that could not be verified. Demographics and other academic factors were compared between applicants with phantom publications and applicants with verifiable publications.
Results: Of the 133 study group applicants, there were 91 (68%) males and 58 (44%) whites. Median age of the study cohort was 32 years (range, 27-48 y). Eight-seven of 130 applicants (65%) listed a total of 392 publications. Thirty-six (9%) of these 392 citations could not be verified and were considered to be phantom publications. The 36 phantom publications were identified in 21 applicants, representing 16% (21/133) of all applicants and 24% (21/87) of all applicants who cited publications. We found no significant difference in any demographic or other studied variable between applicants with phantom publications and those with verifiable publications. When comparing applicants with 3 or more phantom publications with applicants with verifiable publications, the former group had a significantly higher rate of individuals over age 35 (50% vs 24%; P = .02), foreign medical school graduates (75% vs 20%; P = .03), and individuals with 5 or more publications (100% vs 30%; P = .01).
Limitations: Publications may simply have been missed in our search. We specifically may have failed to find publications in foreign journals.
Conclusion: The significance of professionalism and ethical behavior must be emphasized in surgery training programs.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/DCR.0b013e3181fb0e7a | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Analytical sensitivity factors from distributions of time of flight of photons for near-infrared spectroscopy studies in multilayered turbid media.
J Biomed Opt
January 2025
CIFICEN (UNCPBA - CICPBA - CONICET), Tandil, Argentina.
Significance: In the last years, time-resolved near-infrared spectroscopy (TD-NIRS) has gained increasing interest as a tool for studying tissue spectroscopy with commercial devices. Although it provides much more information than its continuous wave counterpart, accurate models interpreting the measured raw data in real time are still lacking.
Aim: We introduce an analytical model that can be integrated and used in TD-NIRS data processing software and toolkits in real time.
Deep learning-based synthetic CT for dosimetric monitoring of combined conventional radiotherapy and lattice boost in large lung tumors.
Radiat Oncol
January 2025
Department of Radiotherapy, Changzhou Cancer Hospital, Honghe Road, Xinbei Area, Changzhou, 213032, China.
Purpose: Conventional radiotherapy (CRT) has limited local control and poses a high risk of severe toxicity in large lung tumors. This study aimed to develop an integrated treatment plan that combines CRT with lattice boost radiotherapy (LRT) and monitors its dosimetric characteristics.
Methods: This study employed cone-beam computed tomography from 115 lung cancer patients to develop a U-Net + + deep learning model for generating synthetic CT (sCT).
Quantitative accuracy of preclinical in ovo PET/MRI: influence of attenuation and quantification methods.
EJNMMI Phys
January 2025
QIMP Team, Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Aim: The combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides an innovation leap in the use of fertilized chicken eggs (in ovo model) in preclinical imaging as PET/MRI enables the investigation of the chick embryonal organ-specific distribution of PET-tracers. However, hybrid PET/MRI inheres technical challenges in quantitative in ovo PET such as attenuation correction (AC) for the object as well as for additional hardware parts present in the PET field-of-view, which potentially contribute to quantification biases in the PET images if not accounted for. This study aimed to investigate the influence of the different sources of attenuation on in ovo PET/MRI and assess the accuracy of MR-based AC for in ovo experiments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDeep-learning based electromagnetic navigation system for transthoracic percutaneous puncture of small pulmonary nodules.
Sci Rep
January 2025
Department of Thoracic Surgery, The Second Xiangya Hospital of Central South University, 139 Renmin Road, Changsha, 410011, Hunan, China.
Percutaneous transthoracic puncture of small pulmonary nodules is technically challenging. We developed a novel electromagnetic navigation puncture system for the puncture of sub-centimeter lung nodules by combining multiple deep learning models with electromagnetic and spatial localization technologies. We compared the performance of DL-EMNS and conventional CT-guided methods in percutaneous lung punctures using phantom and animal models.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOn the Effect of the Patient Table on Attenuation in Myocardial Perfusion Imaging SPECT.
EJNMMI Phys
January 2025
Institute of Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia, University Hospital (Ruhr University Bochum), Medical Faculty OWL (Bielefeld University), Bad Oeynhausen, Germany.
Background: The topic of the effect of the patient table on attenuation in myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) SPECT is gaining new relevance due to deep learning methods. Existing studies on this effect are old, rare and only consider phantom measurements, not patient studies. This study investigates the effect of the patient table on attenuation based on the difference between reconstructions of phantom scans and polar maps of patient studies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!