What a Retracted JAMA Paper Tells Us about the Research Enterprise

Our guest is Eric Weinhandl, an epidemiologist whose investigation of a JAMA paper on dialysis patients lead to its retraction—and subsequent republication.

Eric discusses the steps leading to the paper’s eventual retraction, and what this signals about the larger research enterprise. Eric also discusses the role of bias, conflicts of interest, big data and home dialysis, as well as some thoughts on the field of epidemiology during the COVID pandemic.

Eric Weinhandl is an epidemiologist with fourteen years of research experience in kidney disease, mostly regarding dialysis and pharmaceuticals. Eric worked at the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) Coordinating Center between 2004 and 2015 and has conducted studies with Amgen, Baxter, DaVita, NxStage, Sigma Tau, and the Peer Kidney Care Initiative.

He recently worked for Fresenius Medical Care, one of the major dialysis companies in the United States, and currently works with the chronic disease research group as part of the Hennepin County Medical Center.