Doctors warned over ‘fake news’ issue with medical research

Trial data identified as potentially fraudulent is being used in meta-analyses, US researchers say
Reuters Health Staff writer

The danger of ‘fake news’ being amplified is not limited to the media, according to a study that shows potentially fraudulent research can be repeated in the medical literature for years.

The problem is the result of medical journals’ failure to flag research that’s been identified by drug regulators as potentially fraudulent, says research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

It is compounded by the fact that these studies can be used in meta-analyses, which then perpetuates the error or fraud

The researchers examined the effect of ARISTOTLE, a clinical trial of apixaban (Eliquis).