Scandal Rocks Nobel Panel
Sweden’s Nobel Prize panel, which hands out the prize for medicine among others, has been rocked by a scandal involving an Italian surgeon who specializes in stem cell therapy.
Dr. Paolo Macchiarini is accused of falsifying his CV and falsely claiming he is Pope Francis’ personal physician. Two judges on the panel, Harriet Wallberg and Anders Hamsten, have been asked to resign for their role in mishandling the scandal. They are charged with failing to heed warnings about gross negligence by Macchiarini at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.
The 57-year-old Macchiarini was a member of the team that performed the world’s first windpipe transplant constructed from the recipient’s own stem cells. The once brilliant pioneer was fired from the Karolinska Institute for scientific fraud, negligence, and misrepresentation of his qualifications. There is an ongoing investigation in connection with the death of two patients under his care. Possible charges include gross criminal negligence and involuntary manslaughter.
The scandal has cost the Vice Chancellor of Karolinska Institute, Mr. Hamsten, his job. Ms. Wallberg, who headed the institute at the time Macchiarini was hired, has also lost her present job heading the Swedish Higher Education Authority. The Karolinska Institute is home to the Nobel Price for Medicine, and the scandal has brought unwanted attention to one of the largest and most prestigious medical institutions in Sweden and around the world. The next prize will be awarded in October, but both Hamsten and Wallberg will have to resign before then from the 50-member panel.
The matter came to light when a documentary by SVT, a broadcaster in Sweden, alleged that Macchiarini performed untested stem cell techniques and used his patients essentially as guinea pigs. The once-celebrated surgeon is accused of transplanting synthetic stem-cell-coated tracheas in eight patients, six of whom later died. The institute has acknowledged that Macchiarini’s actions resulted in tragic consequences for these patients and their families.
Macchiarini denies he has done anything wrong. He has vowed to restore his reputation and outright rejects the findings of the institute’s disciplinary board. Meanwhile, Sweden’s higher education minister, Helene Hellmark Knutsson, feels scandal is the correct term because patients were harmed due to the actions of doctors employed by the Karolinska University Hospital and the Karolinska Institute.
The prize money in 2016 is set at 8 million Swedish Kroner (nearly 1 million US dollars) for each Nobel Prize. Former head of the ethics committee at Karolinska Institute, Bo Risberg, has suggested that for the next two years the Nobel Prize for Medicine should not be distributed, and the money used to compensate the families of patients who died under Macchiarini’s care.
References:
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/06/nobel-prize-panel-demands-resignation-of-judges-over-scandal-inv/
