Mesh study author failed to declare £100 000 from manufacturer

A senior medical consultant and researcher has acknowledged that he failed to declare £100 000 received from the manufacturer of a type of vaginal mesh implant that he assessed in a 2012 study.1

Mohamed Abdel-Fattah, a consultant urogynaecologist at Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, voluntarily published a correction to the paper on 18 January,2 more than six years after the paper was published. This came after a complaint was made to the General Medical Council about the failure to declare the £100 000 research grant from Coloplast.

The correction statement said, “A review of the funding in relation to this study revealed a further item that was inadvertently omitted from the original disclosure. This study was funded by the Henry Smith Charity. The University of Aberdeen also received a research grant from Coloplast. Coloplast had no input to any aspect of the study …