Medical practitioner reprimanded, fined and had conditions imposed on his registration for plagiarism and falsifying an examination results letter

13 May 2020

A Tribunal has reprimanded, fined and placed conditions on a medical practitioner’s registration after finding that he engaged in professional misconduct.

On 16 September 2019, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Tribunal) found that Dr Bryan Min Han Soh had engaged in professional misconduct after he plagiarised a medical article, which he referred to in his curriculum vitae (CV), and falsified an examination results letter.

Dr Soh claimed that he was the author of an article published in the Annals of Medicine and Surgery in March 2017, which he had plagiarised from an original article published in the Journal of Radiology, Research and Practice in January 2017. The primary author of the article had sent Dr Soh a draft of the article before it was published to consider whether Dr Soh could make a contribution. Dr Soh undertook proof reading, basic editing and minor additions but the primary author did not consider that Dr Soh had made a sufficient contribution to be listed as a contributing author for publication.

Dr Soh also falsified his RACS Surgical Science Generic Examination result letter by altering the ‘FAIL’ result to a ‘PASS’ result.

Dr Soh used the plagiarised article and the falsified examination result to gain entry to the Surgical Education and Training (SET) in General Surgery program of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

The hearing proceeded on the papers, via agreed statement of facts and the panel did not need to hear submissions from the parties.

In its decision, the Tribunal referred to Good medical practice, a code of conduct for doctors in Australia at section 8.9 that states:

8.9 Curriculum vitae

When providing curriculum vitae, good medical practice involves:

1. Providing accurate, truthful and verifiable information about your experience and your medical qualifications.
2. Not misrepresenting, by misstatement or omission, your experience, qualifications or position.

The tribunal reprimanded Dr Soh, fined him $10,000 and imposed conditions on his registration requiring him to undertake education on academic integrity and research ethics.

The decision is published on the Austlii website.