NIH SCIENTIFIC FRAUD INVESTIGATOR WALTER STEWART

NIH SCIENTIFIC FRAUD INVESTIGATOR WALTER STEWART is on temporary detail to Chairman Dingell's (D-Mich.) House Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee staff. Stewart has been with the subcommittee for about eight months, joining shortly after he appeared at April subcommittee hearings. Stewart's stint with the subcommittee is open-ended.

Stewart testified at the subcommittee's April hearings as an expert in the area of uncovering scientific misconduct. For nearly five years, Stewart and NIH colleague Ned Feder, MD, have been involved in researching the accuracy of scientific literature and of scientific misconduct, particularly in NIH-supported research. The two published an article in Nature Jan. 15, 1987, analyzing alleged errors and discrepancies in 18 papers by cardiology researcher John Darsee and co-authors. Stewart and Feder have also written about a study done at MIT and co-authored by Nobel prize-winner David Baltimore. Stewart and Feder are with the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

In other cases, the subcommittee is looking into a study done by a former Harvard researcher on the use of a vitamin A (tretinoin) ointment for dry eye syndrome and into the use of diagnostic procedures developed by Duke University scientists.