NIH suspended grants to Duke amid patient safety concerns

The NIH suspended seven grants to Duke University last year following concerns of patient safety in research trials, Medscape Medical News reports. The NIH’s actions, according to Medscape, followed a 2017 letter in which Duke raised concerns about research misconduct by investigators in the university’s department of psychiatry, including “not adhering to the research plan, inadequate reporting of adverse events to the [institutional review board] and regulatory agency, and signing data forms without conducting assessments.” The grants were suspended early last year after the NIH did not get adequate details from Duke to reassure the agency about patient safety and welfare. Neither NIH nor Duke would say which grants or investigators were involved, Medscape reports, but a Duke spokesperson shared that the grants were no longer suspended.