By David Tuller, DrPH
Professor Esther Crawley, the methodically and ethically challenged pediatrician and former grant queen at the University of Bristol, retired from medical practice and, apparently, from academia at some point in the recent past. So why does her name still appear on websites as if she were an active participant in research and clinical care?
I noted in a blog post earlier this month that Professor Crawley remains on the list of steering committee members of the Collaborative On Fatigue and related symptoms Following Infection, more commonly known as COFFI. (Is that acronym supposed to be a winking reference to “coffee,” which obviously is known to perk people up? If it is a pun, it’s a rather stupid one, but stupidity is not unknown among this crew.)
To try to find out why Professor Crawley’s name is still included, I sent a letter to COFFI and to the chair of its steering committee, Professor Vegard Wyller of Norway. I have not received a response. (I didn’t expect one.) Needless to say, an organization that fails in such basic functions as ensuring that its website accurately describes its current leadership, it is fair to question whether anything they proclaim can be taken seriously.
Furthermore, the other day a keen observer referred me to the website of a project called Severn Postgraduate Medical Education (SPME), which is the southwest England arm of a larger National Health Service training initiative. Under the SPME, the University of Bristol is offering two-year postgraduate posts in a range of specialties. On the project website, Professor Crawley is listed as one of the two leads for the pediatrics track, along with Professor Richard Coward, who is a Bristol faculty member.
The pediatrics department is offering three of these two-year training positions. Here’s the description:
“These posts will be attached to the clinical and research teams based around the purpose-built Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, a tertiary referral centre for the South West. Paediatric research is a particular strength in Bristol and we are able to offer excellent opportunities in a range of areas including:
*Infectious diseases (joint with microbiology) focuses on the diagnosis, pathogenesis and immune responses to respiratory bacteria and viruses.
“*The Centre for Child and Adolescent Health with research in: Child development and disability, Children’s complex health needs, chronic fatigue and Childhood injury. We also have a strong interest in international child health and have collaborations with overseas partners.
*Renal Research – we have an active and vibrant research group examining renal biology with a strong translational and integrative focus.
*Cardiology with particular interest in pulmonary hypertension aligned to the BRU [Biomedical Research Unit] in the Bristol Heart Institute.”
The website was updated last August, so Professor Crawley’s name should have been removed—if she is, in fact, fully retired. I assume that both the COFFI and Bristol pages are in error in indicating that she is presently involved in their efforts. But it would be good to know for sure—and to understand why, if she is not actually around these days, why these organizations have been so sloppy and lax in website maintenance.
As many readers may remember, I have had contentious exchanges in the past with Bristol functionaries. The legal department at one point sent multiple complaints about my purportedly awful “behaviour” to UC Berkeley’s then-chancellor. At the time, I alerted Bristol that I didn’t appreciate their thuggish efforts to have me sanctioned, noting that this was an academic dispute, not an episode of The Sopranos. Berkeley dismissed the complaints as groundless, given that my “behaviour” largely consisted of pointing out that Professor Crawley breached all sorts of scientific guardrails in her research output.
To seek clarification of the issue, I have sent an e-mail to Bristol’s Freedom of Information office.
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E-mail to Bristol about Professor Crawley’s current status
Dear Freedom of Information Office:
I recently noticed that Professor Esther Crawley is listed as one of two leads in a paediatrics training program, part of the Severn PostGraduate Medical Education initiative. The other named lead is Professor Richard Coward. The website for the project was updated last year, so presumably it should be relatively up to date.
However, it is my understanding that Professor Crawley has retired from the university as well as from the medical field. I see nothing on the university’s website that indicates she remains an active faculty member. It is therefore perplexing to see her listed as the lead in an ongoing project.
Can you please clarify whether Professor Crawley is continuing her work at the university in any capacity, or is indeed retired? If she is retired, why is her name still listed as a lead on the paediatrics training program?
Thank you in advance for your response.
Best—David
David Tuller, DrPH
Senior Fellow in Public Health and Journalism
Center for Global Public Health
School of Public Health
University of California, Berkeley
