Plagiarism Operates at Fawcett Hospital

There's a new way to treat heartburn in our little town. Local physician Alvaro Bada says this about it: This procedure can significantly improve quality of life for our patients. Many reflux patients are unable to drink carbonated beverages, caffeine or eat rich foods or fruit without triggering reflux.

Strangely enough, Dr. William E. Kelly Jr. at Henrico (Virginia) Doctors' Hospital, describes the same procedure this way: EsophyX can signficantly improve quality of life for our patients. Many reflux patients are unable to drink carbonated beverages, caffeine or eat rich foods or fruit without triggering reflux.

And amazingly, Dr. Paul Cirangle of San Francisco explains the procedure like this: EsophyX can signficantly improve quality of life for our patients. Many reflux patients are unable to drink carbonated beverages, caffeine or eat rich foods or fruit without triggering reflux.

Back in our town, Bada's partner, Domingo Galliano, adds to the discussion: Recent studies of EsophyX have shown that the procedure can reduce patients' dependence on medications with 80 percent of patients remaining symptom free after two years and experiencing a dramatic improvement in their quality of life. We are very excited to be able to offer our patiewnts the same incredible benefits with minimal risk.

But Kelley in Virginia "said" it first, back on June 23: Recent studies of EsophyX have shown that the procedure can reduce patients' dependence on meedications with 80 perc ent of patients remaining symptom free after two years and experiencing a dramatic improvement in their quality of life. We are very excited to be able to offer our patiewnts the same incredible benefits with minimal risk.

Even the San Francisco doctor said it more than a month before the local guys got around to saying it: Recent studies of EsophyX have shown that the procedure can reduce patients' dependence on meedications with 80 perc ent of patients remaining symptom free after two years and experiencing a dramatic improvement in their quality of life. We are very excited to be able to offer our patiewnts the same incredible benefits with minimal risk.

There's quite a bit more, but you get the picture.

So, what's so bad about this obvious marketeering? Michelle Ritter, the local writer, put her name on the story and failed to use quotes or attributions; doing so tells Charlotte Sun newspaper readers she wrote it. That's clearly a lie for which there is a specific name: plagiarism. But the plagiarist doesn't sully only her own reputation; she draws others into the journalistic muck.


Ritter puts prefabricated quotes into the mouths of the local doctors, as if they had really said those things.

And Feeling Fit editor Jennifer Wadsworth publishes the fake as a news feature, probably unaware that Ritter is now a three-time winner in the 2008 plagiarism scorecard.

All in all, about a full third of the wordage Ritter claims as her own has a common source with the public relations writers for hospitals in Virginia and California. Old Word Wolf suspects a manufacturer's brochure or news release. At least the California and Virginia practitioners distributed generic notices, possessing an ethical compass that steered them away from claiming the words and work of others as their personal productions.

In other medical news, the Lake Placid Journal's edition of Feeling Fit wants readers to recognize the herb known as St. John's Wort. Here is the identification.

Unique It's Not

This week’s travesty of medical “journalism” is written by public-relations person Michelle Ritter, who receives pay and benefits for saying nice things about her employer. And Charlotte Sun's publisher provides the newsprint for its regular advertiser.

Ritter's news is her employer is “celebrating” (yuck) a new unit at Fawcett Memorial Hospital. After making like she’s actually interviewed a couple of doctors about their “dreams” and “excitement,” she reports her employer provides “state-of-the-art” equipment where patients are treated “like family.” All those clichés are common among second-rate public relations writers. But most flacks -- and newspaper copydesk editors -- are bright enough to avoid the most sophomoric adjectives of all:

Another unique and very important feature of the program is its staff of dedicated nurses.

Tell us, please, what hospital-written news release has not mentioned its dedicated nurses? None of this is unique, Michelle.

The nurses that work in the Spine and Orthopedic Center are specially trained ...

Patients expect the staff to have special training. Otherwise, why go to a specialist?

...and uniquely skilled to treat this type of patient.

Does Ritter expect readers to believe no other orthopedic service in the country trains its orthopedic nurses?

They work only with patients who have had spine or orthopedic procedures ....

And yet at various points in the rest of the story, Ritter claims the staff works with families, doctors, the concierge on call, visitors, and the rest of the hospital’s staff as needed. There’s no “only” about it.

...so these patients receive the maximum attention that they need to heal quickly and effectively

Umm, attention doesn't promote healing, Doctor Ritter. Faulty cause and effect.

Ritter concludes in a tone of breathless amazement, calling even the nurse’s uniforms unique. The photo shows blue golf shirts and beige jackets and vests. Unique they are not.

And unfortunately, neither is this tired and windy piece of free, unedited copy provided by a regular advertiser and positioned as both the cover and "double truck" centerpiece in the Sunday tab.

For the weekly plagiarism discussion ...

Come On, Chip -- You Know You Should Cite a Source or Two

Local colorist Chip Ballard is a citizen journalist. He's also a teacher and, as such, knows quite well that if we don't cite our sources, we're plagiarizing.

Ballard teaches children, and he regularly publishes his own works. Yet, this morning, he and Charlotte Sun editors found it acceptable to run a long paen to American writer John O'Hara without one word of attribution. It seems Ballard woke up one sunny morning knowing exactly what Dorothy Parker said to John O'Hara and what O'Hara said to John Steinbeck and what New York hotels John O'Hara drank at, and when and with whom.

Chip, you don't have to steal something word-for-word to plagiarize. If you rewrite the research, ideas, and information of O'Hara's biographers and present without acknowledging their efforts under your byline, you are a plagiarist.

Word for Word

There’s an apparently plagiarized story in the today's Charlotte Sun’s health-news tab, “Feeling Fit.”

Michele Ritter, who is not listed on the newspaper’s staff directory as a writer or editor, is given as the author of an item that is identified as “Special to Feeling Fit,” and headlined “New colorectal surgical procedure performed at Fawcett Memorial Hospital.”

I suspect Ritter is a hospital a public relations person who was handed a press release written either by a manufacturer or the training staff at a large metropolitan hospital. I hope she didn’t troll the Web, as I did, looking for this item. However she obtained the article, she has no business putting her byline on the piece. In doing so, she tells me and other readers that she wrote it. She didn’t. Here’s my evidence.
We can start with a news release posted on the Web from the University of Cincinnati dated June 20, 2006. Ritter's item is posted at the Sun newspaper site.

The paragraph-by-paragraph comparison of the two documents is given below in full with no elisions. Nearly every word, including the local doctor’s quotes, were published more than a year ago in Ohio.

New colorectal surgical procedure performed at Fawcett Memorial Hospital
By Michelle Ritter
Special to Feeling Fit

Domingo Galliano, Jr., MD, FACS, FACRS recently became the first surgeon in Charlotte County to perform a transanal endoscopic microsurgical procedure, a minimally invasive method for removing rectal cancers that eliminates the need for external incisions.

This procedure is a safe alternative to open surgery for removing very early rectal cancers and polyps, the precancerous masses that form on the lining of the colon or rectum.

"TEM is a great alternative for many patients, especially those who might not be able to tolerate a big operation," explains Galliano, a colorectal surgeon at Fawcett Memorial Hospital. Galliano is not only board certified in colorectal surgery, but he is the only board-certified and fellowship-trained surgeon in Laparoscopic Colon Surgery in Charlotte County.

"The recovery time is minimal, and functional results -- namely bowel function and control -- are often better, so patients can return to their normal activities faster."

Here are the opening grafs of the Cincinnati hospital news release.

CINCINNATI—University of Cincinnati (UC) colorectal surgeons have become the first in the Tristate to perform a transanal endoscopic microsurgical (TEM) procedure, a minimally invasive method for removing rectal cancers that eliminates the need for external incisions.

Surgeons say the procedure is a safe alternative to open surgery for removing very early rectal cancers and polyps, the precancerous masses that form on the lining of the colon or rectum.

“TEM is a great alternative for certain patients, including those who might not be able to tolerate a big operation,” explains Bradley Davis, MD, an assistant professor of surgery at UC and a colorectal surgeon at Christ Hospital. “The recovery time is
minimal, and functional results—namely bowel function and control—are often better, so patients can return to their normal activities faster.”

Ritter's second section reports: It is estimated that approximately 26 centers, including Fawcett, perform this procedure. The technique is a minimally invasive method for operating inside the rectum using a fiber-optic light source, a camera and specialized instruments, eliminating the need for an external incision and leave no visible scarring.

"TEM allows surgeons to reach tumors deeper in the rectum," says Galliano. "It's very accurate, and cancer recurrence rates are typically as low as those achieved using other established methods."

University of Cincinnati’s Web page reads: The technique, known as “endoluminal surgery” is a minimally invasive method for operating inside the rectum using a fiber-optic light source, a camera and specialized instruments. Inserted through the anus, the instruments eliminate the need for an external incision and leave no visible scarring.

“TEM allows surgeons to reach tumors deeper in the rectum,” says Davis. “It’s very accurate, and cancer recurrence rates are typically as low as those achieved using other established methods.”

In the next section, Ritter writes: Traditional rectal surgery
often involves removing a large part of the rectum, which results in less room to store solid waste. This results in a decreased ability to "hold" feces and can even result in incontinence. The TEM procedure can help patients to avoid a temporary -- and sometimes permanent -- colostomy bag, a pouch connected to the bowel and worn outside the body to the collect waste that would normally pass through the digestive system.

"The important thing," stresses Galliano, "is that the patient is diagnosed and evaluated properly. TEM is only appropriate for polyp and very early cancer removal. More advanced cancers require a more aggressive treatment to completely eradicate the disease."

University of Cincinnati’s Web page reads: Traditional
“radical” rectal surgery often involves removing a large part of the rectum, which results in less room to store solid waste. This results in a decreased ability to “hold” feces and can even result in incontinence. Endoluminal surgery allows certain patients to avoid a temporary—and sometimes permanent—colostomy
bag, a pouch connected to the bowel and worn outside the body to the collect waste that would normally pass through the digestive system.

“The important thing,” stresses Davis, “is that the patient is diagnosed and evaluated properly. TEM is only appropriate for polyp and very early cancer removal. More advanced cancers require a more aggressive treatment to completely eradicate the disease.”

Moving along, Ritter writes: Before surgery, the patient is given spinal anesthesia and positioned on the side, back or stomach, depending where the tumor is located. Guided by a video monitor, the surgeon navigates a thin, flexible instrument equipped with a three-dimensional camera and light source at its tip -- through the anal canal to the tumor.

The bowel is inflated with gas to improve tumor visualization. Then, the surgeon detaches the tumor and a small section of surrounding tissue using a specialized electronic scalpel that simultaneously seals affected blood vessels. Once the tumor is removed, the rectal wall is cleansed and sutured.

The procedure takes about an hour, and patients are typically released from the hospital the next day.

University of Cincinnati’s Web page reads: Before surgery, the patient is given spinal anesthesia and positioned on the side, back or stomach, depending where the tumor is located. Guided by a video monitor, the surgeon navigates a “rectoscope”—a thin, flexible instrument equipped with a three-dimensional camera and light source at its tip—up through the anal canal to the tumor.

The bowel is inflated with gas to improve tumor visualization. Then, the surgeon detaches the tumor and a small section of surrounding tissue using a specialized electronic scalpel that simultaneously seals affected blood vessels. Once the tumor is removed through the anus, the rectal wall is cleansed and sutured.

The TEM procedure takes about an hour, and patients are typically released from the hospital the next day.

In winding up, Ritter writes: "This is revolutionary rectal surgery technology," says Vickie Pettigrew, director of surgical services at Fawcett. "It's an easy outpatient procedure with no incision and no pain."

"Patients have valid concerns about quality-of-life issues that result from radical rectal surgery," says Galliano. "TEM maximizes surgical effectiveness while minimizing the negative side effects, such as incontinence, that can cause both discomfort and embarrassment during recovery."

University of Cincinnati’s Web page reads: “Patients have valid concerns about quality-of-life issues that result from radical rectal surgery,” says Davis. “TEM maximizes surgical effectiveness while minimizing the negative side effects, such as incontinence, that can cause both discomfort and embarrassment during recovery.”

Plagiarism or no plagiarism?