The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "doctoral universities" ...
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HBO Real Sports: Hockey's Darkest Day
In 2011 a plane carrying a Russian hockey team crashed shortly after takeoff--the deadliest accident in the history of professional sports. A five-month Real Sports investigation uncovered massive safety problems in the Russian hockey league. The league spent millions on player salaries but "a few bucks" on everything else--including travel. The plane that crashed was operated by a cheap, third-rate company that had been banned from flying to Europe because they had been cited so many times for major safety violations. The crew of the plane hadn't even completed their training. Our investigation showed that the lack of safety in the world’s second best hockey league—called the KHL—often extends to the ice where KHL team doctors use IV’s and drugs to get their players to perform better on the ice. One young star died after receiving an injection of banned drugs from team doctors. When it came to travel, the lack of safe conditions was nearly universal. Practically every team flew on a Soviet-era jet—jets that make up 3% of the world’s fleet but account for 42% of the world’s accidents. These jets are in such poor condition that most Russian airlines wont use them. Yet even after the crash the KHL continued to use these planes, a fact they initially denied. Shortly after we interviewed the KHL Vice President, the league changed its rules. Now teams fly strictly on modern equipment.
Tags: Russia; Russian hockey team; plane crash; the KHL;
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What Killed Arafat?
This 50-minute film was the result of a nine month long cold case investigation into the suspicious death of Yasser Arafat, Palestine's iconic, revolutionary leader. After obtaining Arafat's entire original medical files, Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit, led by producer and reporter Clayton Swisher, crossed continents to track down and interview the French, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian doctors who had worked to save Arafat's life. Part I of "What Killed Arafat?" was able to easily shatter popular myths about what caused Arafat's precipitous decline from the onset of his illness on October 12, 2004 until his death on November 11th. Testimony from Arafat's doctors conclusively ruled out liver cirrhosis, cancer, even rumors of HIV. The scientific, evidence-based discoveries made in the Part II result from the work performed by a team of forensic pathologists, toxicologists, and radiation physicists from the University Center for Legal Medicine and Institute for Radiation Physics in Lausanne, Switzerland. Working without payment, they agreed to run a battery of sophisticated tests on a large gym bag containing Arafat’s last personal effects. The scientists discovered significant levels of reactor-made Polonium 210 contaminating areas of Arafat's personal effects that came into contact with his biological fluids. When the final results came back in late June, Al Jazeera hosted Mrs. Arafat in Doha to watch the Swiss explain the results on set. Upon witnessing their testimony, Ms. Arafat made a resolute, unanticipated surprise announcement, calling on the Palestinian Authority to exhume her husband's body for testing. Yasser Arafat’s body was exhumed on November 27, 2012 so that the final samples could be retrieved. Whether the causes of Arafat's death are determined to be natural, inconclusive—or even murder—suffice it to say that Al Jazeera’s "What Killed Arafat?" and the resulting investigations and exhumation will have inched the world closer to understanding what did not, and possibly for the first time, what did claim the life of this historic and controversial personality.
Tags: Science; death; biology; investigation; exhumation; testing
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Side Effects
"This series began in 2009 after learning that doctors at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine had been receiving payments from drug and medical device companies. It has grown into a much broader and deeper look at the pervasive influence of money in medicine."
Tags: FDA; Medtronic; medical research
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Side Effects
The author examines the conflicts of interest within the medical community and the influence of pharmaceutical companies on doctors and researchers. The series shows the dangerous consequences that come when drug companies pay doctors and researchers to endorse their products. An inquiry by a U.S. Senate committee, as well as policy reform at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health were results of this investigation.
Tags: pharmaceutical companies; drug companies; medicine; conflict of interest; doctors
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OHSU: Shielded by the Law
KATU examines the tort liability cap grated to Oregon Health and Science University, "one of the largest hospitals in Oregon." The cap "limits all malpractices awards to $200,000," which results in malpractice attorneys not taking on cases against the hospital.
Tags: health care; patients; malpractice; law; lawyer; torts; liability; medical malpractice; doctors; hospitals; Oregon; Oregon Health and Science University
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A Trustworthy Lie Detector?
The Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA) is a lie detector "said to be able to determine truth or deception by tone of voice or stress level." The machine has "been sold to hundreds of police departments and the U.S. military," with these organizations using it to put people in jail and interrogate terror suspects even though "not a single scientific study has been done to show the CSVA actually works." The Pentagon has now banned use of the machine. An ABC News investigation discovered that while the machine is sold for $10,000 apiece with claims of 98 percent accuracy, some of its convictions have been overturned. In addition, CSVA creator and National Institute for Truth Verification CEO Dr. Charles Humble is "not a medical doctor and does not have a PHD from an accredited university. Instead, he was awarded a Dr. of Psychology after taking a few hours of bible studies at a bible college which was located in an Indiana strip mall."
Tags: Computer Voice Stress Analyzer; Dr. Charles Humble; prisoner interrogation; Institute for Truth Verification; diploma mills
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Unoriginal Sin
A graduate student exposed an offcial at Argosy University in Chicago as having plagiarized large sections of her doctoral project when she earned that degree from Argosy. School officials at first reprimanded the student, finally allowing her to graduate but noting it would go on her permanent academic record. Meanwhile, there was no initial punishment for the official, Bindu Ganga. In the wake of the stories, Ganga was first suspended and then fired and stripped of her doctorate.
Tags: Bindu Ganga; academic fraud; Argosy University-Chicago; plagiarism
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"Anatomy of a Mistake"
60 Minutes reports on the death of 17-year-old Jesica Santillan, who died on the operating table at Duke University Hospital while receiving a heart and lung transplant. Her death, a result of human and systemic failure, came about because her surgeon, Dr. James Jaggers, never properly verified whether the donor organs were of the same blood type of Jesica's. Cross-checking the blood type of the donor and the recipient is a standard procedure which was overlooked by the surgeon, nurses, assisting doctors, Duke University Hospital, and Carolina Donor Services. Jesica's death could have been prevented if the agencies followed national policy, instead of releasing the organs without first verifying the blood type.
Tags: None
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U W Drugs
A team physician at the University of Washington was accused of dispensing drugs in the form of painkillers and other steroids which were mainly muscle relaxants. All these drugs were given to the student athletes without any valid prescriptions and often without any physical examination as well. Once this came out in the open the state suspended the doctor's licence.
Tags: Dr. William J. Scheyer; University of Washington; athletes; student athletes; team physician; health department; drugs; painkillers; valid prescriptions; FOIA
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The Cost of Courage
From small community hospitals, to Ivy League medical centers, physicians are increasingly facing retaliation from hospitals for reporting poor care. America's physicians are sworn to protect their patients from harm, but increasingly face a surprising obstacle. Doctors who step forward to warn of unsafe conditions or a colleague's poor work say they have been targeted by hospital administrators or boards. This is done by labeling the physicians "disruptive," then terminating their admitting privileges and listing them in a national data bank, effectively crippling their careers.
Tags: Center Community Hospital; hospital administration; hospital boards; National Practitioner Data Ban; patient care; hospital attorneys; suspension; Cleveland's University Hospitals; physicians; whistleblower physicians; Pennsylvania Medical Society; Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; American Medical Association; Health Care Quality Improvement Act; Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center; Cleveland Clinic; Case Western Reserve University; hospital inspections; VA's Office of Healthcare Inspections