Medical Studies Allegedly Fabricated

It may be one of the longest running and widest-ranging cases of academic fraud.

Baystate Medical Center in Springfield says the former chief of its acute pain department fabricated the results of nearly two dozen published medical studies, even making up the patients who appeared in the research.

Hospital officials say they found problems dating back 13 years in studies by Doctor Scott Reuben.

Some of the studies involved the drug Celebrex and was underwritten by the drug company that makes Celebrex.

Reuben's attorney says he cooperated with the investigation, but offers no word on whether Reuben admitted to the allegations.

The case is sure to fuel criticism that drug companies should not be involved financially with testing on their drugs.

One such critic is former New England Journal of Medicine editor doctor Jerome Kassirer, a distinguished professor at Tufts University, who joins us this morning.