Amazing talk at #AUC2025 by the even more amazing @elisabethbik.bsky.social who I failed to tag in my post but just found her!

I admire this woman for being a watchdog for science and just being a bad a-s woman!

Photo taken at evening dinner party. Three people standing in the front, wearing conference badges. The two women are wearing festive dresses in black and blue, and the man is dressed in a black suit and black tie, with a white shirt.

The three keynote speakers from yesterday's morning session about "The veracity of medical research", last night at the #AUC2025 'black tie' dinner.
Left to right: Jane Freedman, MD - myself - Sanjay Kaul, MD @kaulcsmc.bsky.social

Sky at sunrise with clouds colored in hues of pink, orange, salmon, and blue. In the foreground six tall palm trees. More palm trees in the background.

Sunrise at the Phoenician in Scottsdale, AZ. Good morning!
#AUC2025

After a lovely swim in three of the many pools here, this is a great spot to get a bit of work done.
Thank you, #AUC2025!

Dr. Khurram Nasir inducted to #AUC2025 w/ The Power of Zero
🫀 Helps derisk patients
🫀 CAC as a decision aid, not a screening tool
🫀treating the right paint at the right time is precision Tx 🎯
🫀it is beyond statins- it can help identify higher risk pt for trials
#YesSCCT @houstonmethodist.bsky.social

Dr. Bonnie Ky #PennCardiology presenting at #AUC2025 on what we need to be focusing on in #cardiooncology to advance this important and growing field

Congratulations Dr. Ky on your induction to AUC🎊🍾
#cardiosky

Growing, Building, and Defining the Field of Cardio-Oncology for Our Patients:

Next short talk:
Bonnie Ky with "Advancing Actionable Science in Cardio-Oncology: From Longitudinal Cohort Studies to Clinical Trials"
Editorial in @jaccjournals.bsky.social - www.jacc.org/doi/abs/10.1...
#AUC2025

Moving on to the first scientific session, with short (10+2 min) talks.
Jorge Saucedo with "Facilitating international quality improvement initiatives in patients with heart disease. Insights of the first implementation program in Mexico in patients with acute coronary syndrome"
#AUC2025

Morning run in Phoenix with my (new) running buddy (don’t tell #BinkleyLove & #CocoLoco)- Ms Paisley ♥️
#AzCountryClub #cardiologistswhorun #AUC2025
#CardioSky

Perioperative Mischief: The Price of Academic Misconduct Recent allegations of fraud committed by one of the most prolific researchers in perioperative medicine, Don Poldermans, have left many clinicians in a state of disbelief. With over 500 peer-reviewed ...

SK: It takes the combined responsibility of all stakeholders to flag and correct/remove fraudulent papers.
Chopra and Eagle quote: "The consequences of research fraud are legion [...] The price of academic misconduct is simply too great to pay."
www.amjmed.com/article/S000...

#AUC2025

Dr. Sanjay Kaul giving the Burch Lecture at #AUC2025 discussing Research Misconduct: what is Sloppy Science?

Median time from publication to retraction: 1.4 y
On average 8 citations before retraction
Don’t be a John Darsee!
The DECREASE 1 trial: BB use entered guidelines despite 2 day retraction

Simple‐Minded Antihypertensive Treatment: Of Assumptions, Potpourri, and Sausages

SK - @kaulcsmc.bsky.social : Many failures in studies on Vioxx or meta-analysis on Rosiglitazone, aspirin.
Quote by Bangalore&Messerli : "A meta-analysis is like a sausage; only God and the butcher know what goes in it, and neither would ever eat any."
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

#AUC2025

Redirecting

SK: many trials have tried to reproduce the (later found to be fraudulent) cardiac stem cells findings and failed.
In another example, a fraudulent trial led to change in guidelines, but was never reproduced. Papers never retracted.
linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii...
#AUC2025

Coping with Fraud: The Darsee Case

SK talks about two cardiovascular fraud cases, as described here:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.reuters.com/investigates...
These studies can have a big impact on a field.
#AUC2025

A survey of retractions in the cardiovascular literature - PubMed The number of retractions and the yearly percentage of retraction in the cardiovascular literature increased significantly during the study period, although a decrease was seen after 2015. Scientific ...

SK: There is a spectrum between high quality science - sloppy science - misconduct.
Several papers looked at retractions in the cardiovascular literature:
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34921899/
watermark.silverchair.com/wadhwa_2021_...
#AUC2025

Photo of Dr Kaul standing behind a lectern, behind him a screen with his title slide.

Next up: Sanjay Kaul, professor at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with: "Intention to Deceive: Insights from Sloppy Science to Research Misconduct in Cardiovascular Medicine"
George Burch quote: "One's personal integrity must never be questioned and never be reproachable"
#AUC2025

Wonderful dinner at #AUC2025 with great friends! @mgshusband.bsky.social

Thank you to Mark Tarbell and team for a magical setting and amazing food

Fraud & Misconduct is really a problem in medical research and by companies (recall Theranos!) #AUC2025

Authorship can also be for sale! This may be 2% of publications. There is monetary incentives for such research for some.

How do we know?
The answer is it is hard!

#AUC2025 kicking off in Phoenix with Dr. Jane Freeman discussing scientific fraud

🫀how do you ensure the authenticity of research? And why does it matter?
🫀 Bad science leads to bad data and that spreads exponentially- & it can harm patients

Methodological Rigor in Preclinical Cardiovascular Research: Contemporary Performance of AHA Scientific Publications | Circulation Research

JF: With the addition of a technical editor, the quality of publications has improved (e.g. more randomization, blinded).See study by Jung et al.
www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/...
But we are only catching the tip of the iceberg! Papers with AI-generated text, paper mills are on the rise.
#AUC2025

JF: The rise of # of retractions might be caused by increased fraud, or better tools to detect fraud cases.
In publishing, we do a lot of detective work. We have checklists and specialist editors, software tools. But these checks and requests might annoy the authors.
#AUC2025

In cardiology, one fraud case had a large impact. The legacy is long-lasting. Other scientists cite fraudulent papers, and lines of research that turned out to be fraudulent, might receive a lot of funding while other lines of research are underfunded.
#AUC2025
www.reuters.com/investigates...

There is a worrying amount of fraud in medical research And a worrying unwillingness to do anything about it

JF: The number of retractions is rapidly increasing, mostly because of suspected fraud. See the 2023 Economist paper.
#AUC2025
www.economist.com/science-and-...

Jane Freedman at the lectern on the left, with the slide of the conference with the name and location on the screen to her right.

Good morning from #AUC2025, the annual meeting of the Association of University Cardiologists, in Scottsdale, AZ.
www.aucard.org/auc-2025
Jane Freedman, the AUC director and professor at Vanderbilt University, is opening the conference.