Army says surgeon falsified research

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- Walter Reed Army Medical Center says a former surgeon has made false claims about a bone-growth product sold by U.S. healthcare company Medtronic Inc.

Medical Center Commander Col. Norvell Coots said Tuesday an investigation by the hospital determined that former Army surgeon Timothy Kuklo misreported the benefits of the bone-growth product by allegedly overstating the numbers of patients and injuries studied in tests, The New York Times reported.

"It's like a ghost population that were reported in the (research) as having been treated that we have no record of ever having existed," Coots said. "So this really was all falsified information."

Coots alleged Kuklo forged Walter Reed doctors' signatures on a research article submitted to a British medical journal, falsely asserting they had helped write it. The Times said Kuklo is also accused of not obtaining the Army's required permission to conduct the study.

A Medtronic spokeswoman said the Minneapolis company did not finance or review Kuklo's study of its Infuse product, but reportedly declined to say when it hired him or how much it had paid him over the years.

Kuklo did not return the Times' calls for comment.