Top medical prof faces plagiarism allegations

A top University of Calgary medical professor is facing allegations he plagiarized portions of a celebrated 2003 paper on medical ethics. Although the 88 page study was officially retracted by journal Current Problems in Surgery, in 2007, it is only now being discussed publicly after Postmedia had learned of the incident. The retraction noted that former U of C head of surgery Rene Lafreniere had taken "multiple passages . . . from other sources without appropriate attribution given the original authors." Although the original study had three other coauthors, Lafreniere was specifically identified in the journal’s published retraction notice. Also in 2007 Lafreniere was named president of the Canadian Association of General Surgeons. In 2009, he, and another academic, had received a research grant worth nearly $70,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The U of C is not commenting directly on the case.