Plagiarism and advertising and COI, oh my!

Update #4, 7:45 AM Eastern, Sunday, June 17 (Happy Father's Day, everyone!)
As of this morning, the HealthWorks Collective has taken down the story as well. What is interesting to me is that neither OneMedPlace nor HealthWork Collective has put any explanation on their respective site, and the reader is essentially consigned to finding "ERROR 404." I sure hope that this is not either of the organization's attempt to sweep the whole thing under the rug. 


Update #3, 6:00 PM Eastern (and last for tonight, I hope)
Another e-mail from Matt Margolis, in which he requested that I let my readers know that 

...we took down our piece after an internal discussion, before you and I made any contact. Hence my request to remove a reference to us.

Still no answer on Aviisha -- perhaps it will appear in the "similar piece" they are planning to publish next week. looking forward to it. 


Update #2, 4:35 PM Eastern
Another exiting update for y'all. A few hours ago I got a message from a Matt Margolis at OneMedPlace informing me that the company has taken the post down after realizing their mistake. Well, why don't I just share the whole message (emphasis mine)?

Hello Marya,

Thank you for reaching out to us. We quickly realized there was an error in attribution and have since pulled the story. We would appreciate at this time that you do not include our name or our article in your post. However, we will be publishing a similar piece next week that will incorporate some of the facts in the NYT story. At which time, I am happy to answer any questions to help give depth to your piece.

Best,

Matt Margolis

Managing Editor, OneMedPlace

I responded asking for "more depth" with respect to whether Aviisha is a client of OneMedPlace. I will let you know what I hear when I hear it. And by the way, the HealthWorks Collective still has the story on its page. 


Update #1, 1:45 PM Eastern
As of right now, the OneMedPlace story page has been taken down. No one from OneMedPlace has communicated with me at this point. The story is still up on the HealthWorks Collective site here. 

About four years ago I decided that it was time to learn more about the recent abundant advances in brain science. Since then, I have read avidly on our neurobiology, behavioral economics and decision science. I have learned about our predictable irrationality, biophilia, heuristics and biases, and our drive to create linear explanations for phenomena where none exists. I also learned about priming, where subtle messages delivered prior to a task's completion (did you know that you can, for example, get kids to improve more on their exams by commending their hard work than their native brilliance?) influence the outcome of the task.

It is in this context of (some) understanding about how the human brain assembles its information pathways that I read this story from yesterday's OneMedPlace News (also reprinted by The HealthWorks Collective here under the byline of Herina Ayot, the Managing Editor for OneMedPlace). This story about a correlation between severe sleep apnea and cancer, starts out thusly:

Two new studies have found that people with sleep apnea, a common disorder that causes snoring, fatigue and dangerous pauses in breathing at night, have a higher risk of cancer. The new research marks the first time that sleep apnea has been linked to cancer in humans.

About 28 million Americans have some form of sleep apnea, though many cases go undiagnosed.

[...] For sleep doctors, the condition is a top concern because it deprives the body of oxygen at night and often coincides with cardiovascular disease, obesity, and diabetes.

All of this is true and truly concerning. The next two paragraphs state

In light of the recent studies, Aviisha Medical Institute, LLC is taking $200 off the cost of its home sleep test, which was originally $449.49, and offering free assessments for the duration of May. The special offer is intended to encourage the public to get tested for sleep apnea and raise awareness about the deadly consequences of untreated apnea. Studies estimate that 85% of sleep apnea sufferers don’t know they have the condition.

One may speculate that other diagnostic technologies developers may promote offers in light of this newfound cancer correlation, as well.

This is when I got a little uncomfortable thinking that this is an advertisement rather than a story. And the final statement really got my hackles up:

Although the study did not look for it, study author Dr. Miguel Angel Martinez-Garcia, of La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital in Spain, speculated that treatments for sleep apnea like continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, which keeps the airways open at night, might reduce the association.

And how does sleep apnea cause cancer?

Lead author Dr. F. Javier Nieto, chair of the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, commented that five times the risk of cancer is more than just a statistical anomaly. Previous studies in animals have shown similar results, while other studies have linked cancer to possible lack of oxygen or anaerobic cell activity over long periods of time, therefore, it’s possible poor breathing fails to oxygenate the cells sufficiently. 

But then even more happened. From the very beginning of the article, I had sensed something familiar in it. It was my recollection that I had seen this story before about the two studies presented at the American Thoracic Society last month. Dutifully clicking on the link provided in the first paragraph of Ayot's story, I found myself on the NYT's "Well" blog reading the post from May 20, 2012, by Anahad O'Connor. Here is how it starts:

Two new studies have found that people with sleep apnea, a common disorder that causes snoring, fatigue and dangerous pauses in breathing at night, have a higher risk of cancer. The new research marks the first time that sleep apnea has been linked to cancer in humans.

About 28 million Americans have some form of sleep apnea, though many cases go undiagnosed. For sleep doctors, the condition is a top concern because it deprives the body of oxygen at night and often coincides with cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes.

And then, disappointingly, toward the end of the post:

Although the study did not look for it, Dr. Martinez-Garcia speculated that treatments for sleep apnea like continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, which keeps the airways open at night, might reduce the association.

A couple of things shocked me (in addition to the final statement about CPAP):
1). Ayot's story was almost verbatim (with the exception of the Aviisha advertisement) reprinted from O'Connor's story. There did not seem to be an attribution, unless linking the the original post counts as one. Please, someone who is well versed in this, tell me if this is an acceptable way to attribute. I'll tell you now that in the academic circles this would be (and has been) called plagiarism. As you may recall, I am pretty sensitive to this, having had my work plagiarized recently.
2). The thinly veiled advertisement (inserted into the body of this story which is practically copied from the NYT word for word). The advertisement would not bother me if it had stayed on the OneMedPlace web site -- after all they seem to be a PR agency. But is was reprinted on the HealthWorks Collective's site as a legitimate news item, and I don't believe that HWC is a purveyor of advertorials.

I browsed the web site of Ayot's employer OneMedPlace to see if there is evidence that Aviisha is a client, but did not find any, though my search was admittedly perfunctory. I have reached out to the company for a comment and to understand whether a conflict of interest may exist with Aviisha, but have not heard from them at this time. I will update the post if and when I hear from them.

So drawing on my limited understanding of how the brain works, here is what I am thinking this piece aims to accomplish:
1). Create an awareness of a condition that is apparently common and largely undiagnosed, and do it using words from a high-impact publication
2). Prime the reader with the idea that we understand how it causes cancer (if only in laboratory animals, maybe)
3). Set up Aviisha (and "other diagnostic technology developers") as solution providers
4). Create a linear path to CPAP as the answer

But this is just my uneducated guess at how the human brain may perceive this story. Of course, I could just be playing right into my cognitive biases.   

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