19 punished for role in medical admission case

A total of 19 officials, doctors and educators from nine institutions in Beijing have been held accountable in the case of a junior physician who fabricated academic records and committed plagiarism to gain admission into a prestigious medical program, China's top health authority announced on Friday.

The National Health Commission also urged the Peking Union Medical College to tighten checks on applications for its four-year doctoral program — which provides outstanding students majoring in another discipline with an accelerated pathway to become a doctor — strengthen academic integrity education and ensure a mandatory three-year residency program for all.

The academic misconduct of the junior physician, surnamed Dong, surfaced after her extramarital affair with a senior surgeon at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, surnamed Xiao, was made public by his wife in mid-April.

Following public doubts cast on Dong's enrollment certifications, dissertations and dubious residency experiences, the commission launched an official investigation in early May and announced the revocation of the medical licenses of Dong and Xiao for violations of professional and academic ethics later that month.

In the latest investigation results published on Friday, the commission said that the China-Japan Friendship Hospital failed to rigorously implement medical quality safety management and medical ethics nurturing. Previously, Xiao was confirmed to have arbitrarily left a surgical room while a patient was under anesthesia due to an argument involving Dong, who was a trainee there.

Moreover, officials and doctors from the Peking Union Medical College, Peking Union Medical College Hospital and Cancer Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences have been found to have overlooked loopholes in Dong's application materials and dissertations. Some resorted to nepotism to illegally transfer Dong to different departments during her residency.

Dong's aunt, surnamed Ban, an official at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, aided in falsifying Dong's academic records that were later used as application materials. She also arranged for a university teacher to help her niece write a doctoral thesis.

The commission said that the vice-president of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, surnamed Cui, was given a disciplinary admonition. The then vice-president of Peking Union Medical College, who was responsible for admissions and teaching, surnamed Zhang, was given a serious warning.

Seventeen other officials or workers from hospitals and universities, including several chief physicians and surgeons, have also been given punishment, including admonitions, disciplinary reviews and warnings.

A head nurse at the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, the director of academic affairs at the Peking Union Medical College and an official at the University of Science and Technology Beijing have been removed from their positions. Dong's aunt was dismissed and removed from the teaching position.

The commission added that the "four-plus-four-year" doctoral program that admitted Dong is meant to advance integration of medical education with other disciplines.

It has now joined efforts with the Ministry of Education to urge the Peking Union Medical College to deepen rectifications, including specifying the range of applicants' undergraduate institutions and major categories, enhancing checks of academic records, and strength education on academic integrity and oversight over clinical internships.

The commission also stresses ramping up quality requirements and defense procedures for theses and implementing an additional plagiarism check in the second year after thesis defense.

All graduates from the program must complete a uniform three-year residency training period, it added.