Medicine and Health, Article Review Example

The article, “A Doctor’s Drug Trials Turn Into Fraud” focuses on the plight of Dr. Robert Fiddes, who committed fraudthrough his medical practice with medical research and drug experimentation. The article reports on how he grew a massive research practice by aggressively recruiting patients for drug experiments that he conducted. Dr. Fiddes and his wife lived a lavish lifestyle with the millions of dollars he earned from conducting the experiments, which included luxury cars and a mansion in the Cayman Islands.

The article does a thorough job of pointing out that Dr. Fiddes violated several laws by committing fraud. It is noted that he fabricated medical documents by making up vital statistic readings, using fictitious patients, using bogus bodily fluids for lab test results, and misrepresented medical information with bogus paperwork and falsified records. In addition, Dr. Fiddes arranged from people to be paid for giving his practice urine and blood samples to use in a bogus manner. Indications are that Dr. Fiddes did this for his own selfish gain and was eventually brought under investigation, due to the whistleblowing of some of his employees. Additionally, the article suggests it is questionable why Dr. Fiddes thought that everybody would go along with his crimes, while he lived a wealthy lifestyle is puzzling. However, he apparently thought that they would do so.

The article goes on to explain that suspicion of Dr. Fiddes’ crimes was eventually brought to the attention of government auditors, which led to extensive investigations of the Southern California Research Institute and Dr. Fiddes.

According to the article, apart from committing fraud, Dr. Fiddes’ actions endangered the lives of the patients as well as the health of the American public and caused consumer confidence in the pharmaceutical industry to drop. Additionally, it is noted that the pharmaceutical industry changed how they conduct and manage drug testing, due to Dr. Fiddes’ fraudulent behavior. This was later exposed by a woman who worked for Dr. Fiddes doing laboratory tests. She reported violations to the Food and Drug Administration.

The article concludes with an explanation of how Dr. Fiddes finally pled guilty to fraud and accepted a plea bargain to oust other suspected doctors doing the same things he did. The article also states that Dr. Fiddes told the investigators there was nothing they would have been able to see to detect his fraud, and if it were not for the employees reporting him, he would still be practicing.

This article is very well-written and thorough. It brings out all of the details about the case and explains the entire process of how Dr. Fiddes was brought to justice. My thoughts about Dr. Fiddes’ actions are that he was wrong and selfish and did not care that his actions would eventually hurt many people and cause a possible public health problem. This is the ultimate betrayal of a doctor who is charged with upholding the law and to do no harm. Additionally, it just goes to show that people in authority positions cannot necessarily be trusted just because they hold those positions. Everyone needs to be monitored and audited, and checks and balances need to be in place to curtail temptations and opportunities for people like Dr. Fiddes to use to their advantage in a negative way.

Works Cited

Eichenwald, K. and G. Kolata. “A Doctor’s Drug Trials Turn Into Fraud.” The New York Times 17 May 1999: Section A; Page 1, Column 1.