Last Updated on: 4th April 2022, 03:45 pm
Who is Dr Zoe Sun of Cambridge University? Biography, Wiki
A trainee surgeon Dr Zoe Sun has been fired after waging a smear campaign against innocent colleagues when she was exposed for falsifying a major clinical trial at Cambridge University.
Dr Zoe Sun, 37, has accused two doctors of being sexual parasites and filed false claims against fellow colleagues after falsely blaming themselves for a research project funded by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Dr Zoe Sun’s Age
Her current age is 37 years.
Dr Zoe Sun Struck Off For Waging Smear Campaign Against Innocent Senior Colleagues
She reported the innocent doctors to two police officers and, when told by detectives there was no evidence against them, told supervisors that the couple risked arrest as a criminal investigation into their allegations was “still ongoing”.
Research credited to Sun had to be reanalyzed and resubmitted after it was found to contain errors.
She has now been removed from the medical register after a Medical Practice Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing found her guilty of “persistent and willful” dishonesty.
What Was The Incidents?
A misconduct committee heard the incidents began in April 2017 when Sun, who was in vascular surgery at Leeds University Hospitals, was sent to Cambridge as a clinical researcher for a study called OPERA.
Sun’s role in the study was to collect data from human subjects, analyze the results, and report them to a physician in charge of the overall project before sending them to GSK.
But in September 2018, he submitted a draft study manuscript to the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN): “Recombinant erythropoietin decreases endothelium-mediated vasodilation in patients with predialytic CKD: a prospective controlled study.”
It was sent out without permission and she had withdrawn the co-authors’ names.
When Sun was asked to withdraw the draft manuscript, he ignored the instructions and instead sent an email to a Cambridge University professor saying, “None of them did anything.” GSK saw the latest version and permission granted.
He later resigned from the University of Cambridge before filing “widespread and inaccurate” complaints against his colleagues, falsely claiming that they had accepted the manuscript’s publication.
Sun also claimed that the professor “is unfit to perform teaching, research or clinical work.”
When she was warned that she would be referred to the General Medical Council (GMC) for misconduct, she filed a formal complaint against her supervisor, the assistant medical director at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.
In July and August 2019 he made several complaints of harassment against the doctor and two other colleagues to both West Yorkshire Police and Cambridgeshire Police.
Both police forces told her they would not be charging her due to a lack of evidence, but she told the GMC that two of her colleagues had “criminal charges against her with a police warning of sexual harassment and defamation of a woman” apprentice’.
Police Investigation Report
He added: “The investigation is ongoing and the police have warned them and they will be arrested if their actions continue.”
One of the doctors wrongly accused, Dean of Postgraduate Health Education for England, also said: “The conduct of Dr. Sun has affected me deeply on a personal level.” I never received an apology or expression of regret from Dr. Sun regarding the charges she has brought against me.
Sun representative Marios Lambis told the panel that the trainee doctor’s “ethnic and cultural background” may have contributed to the case.”
She said Sun “realized that his actions and dishonesty were gross and wrong,” adding that it was a “tragic tale of mistakes and missed opportunities.”
For his part, Sun apologized, saying, “I misunderstood the facts and perceived a malicious conspiracy against me when there was none.”
“I am devastated by my actions and the pain I have caused.”
But MPTS President Paul Curtis said at the hearing that a termination order was the most appropriate course of action.
He said: “Improper actions have serious consequences for a doctor and the profession as a whole. Although the court found that Dr. Sun’s actions did not cause direct harm to patients, his dishonesty was linked to providing false information, which which was particularly serious and caused stress and had significant consequences for the work of these partners.”
“The dishonesty included false statements to Cambridge University, colleagues, two separate police forces and the GMC.”
“Dr. Sun submitted research that, when the results were re-analyzed, was found to be inaccurate and potentially misleading.”
“Doctors must be honest and trustworthy and ensure that their behavior justifies the trust placed in them by their patients. Dr Sun’s dishonesty was persistent, deliberate, and lasted for 16 months.”
“Although the court found that Dr. Sun does not pose a safety risk to patients, it concluded that the measures are necessary to maintain public confidence in the profession.”
“Dr. Sun’s dishonest actions have undermined public confidence in the medical profession. She understands that patients need to be able to trust the integrity of physicians, and when a physician undermines that trust, public trust in the profession is at risk.”
“The nature, extent and seriousness of his dishonesty were such that removal alone might be the appropriate and proportionate sanction.”
Some Quick Facts About Dr Zoe Sun
- Dr Zoe Sun filed false police reports against two innocent colleagues.
- It came after the research project was misattributed to the University of Cambridge.
- The investigation, which Sun later attributed to himself, had to be reanalyzed and resubmitted.
- The intern has now been fired for “persistent and willful” dishonesty.
