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Puliafito Morning (7/25)
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Allegations that medical school dean led drug-fueled secret life reverberate in Boston
Jul 25, 2017 | The Boston Globe
By Priyanka Dayal McCluskey
Dr. Carmen Puliafito was once among Boston’s most prominent physicians, building a clinic from scratch before leaving more than a decade ago for prestigious roles in Miami and then in Los Angeles. -
Former dean of medicine at University of Southern California accused of holding drug-filled parties
Jul 24, 2017 | NY Daily News
By Elizabeth Elizalde
The former dean of the University of Southern California’s school of medicine lived a secret life filled with drug-fueled parties — and in one instance, his young companion overdosed in his presence, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation. -
Questions Surround USC and Its Disgraced Ex-Med School Dean
Jul 24, 2017 | Medscape
By Marcia Frellick
Questions are multiplying after Carmen Puliafito, MD, who had been dean of the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles from 2007 to March of 2016, was suspended by the university on Friday, days after the Los Angeles Times revealed repeated instances of his illegal drug use. -
KFIAM (KFI): Gary and Shannon
Jul 24, 2017 | KFIAM (KFI)
sex and hookers and stuff like that was exclusive and usc had no longer than he appears in all that now we have reached on at least thought about it seemed like so and do is come on a dollars and about doctor harman only if ito the former dean of the medical school and usc .
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Allegations that medical school dean led drug-fueled secret life reverberate in Boston
Jul 25, 2017 | The Boston Globe
By Priyanka Dayal McCluskey
Dr. Carmen Puliafito was once among Boston’s most prominent physicians, building a clinic from scratch before leaving more than a decade ago for prestigious roles in Miami and then in Los Angeles.
Now the Harvard-educated eye surgeon, who became dean of the University of Southern California’s medical school, is in the spotlight after a sensational report in the Los Angeles Times revealed that Puliafito essentially led a double life.
Puliafito was a renowned academic by day, an ophthalmologist who helped raise more than $1 billion for USC. By night, according to the report, he did hard drugs and partied with prostitutes and other drug users — sometimes in his university office.
The Times interviewed people who partied with Puliafito and reviewed photos and videos of him taking ecstasy and methamphetamine in 2015 and 2016.
Following the newspaper’s report last week, USC officials said they were investigating the matter and working to fire Puliafito and strip him of his faculty tenure as quickly as possible for his “egregious behavior.”
The sudden change in fortune for the 66-year-old hotshot doctor stunned many in Boston, where Puliafito got his start and spent the first two decades of his career.
It’s difficult to know whether Puliafito had substance-abuse issues when he worked in Boston in the 1980s and 1990s. He has no criminal record, according to the Times report.
A longtime friend who spoke to the Globe said he had never seen Puliafito take hard drugs. A spokeswoman for Tufts Medical Center, where he worked for 10 years until 2001, said there is no indication of any issues during his time at Tufts.
In Boston, Puliafito was known as driven and intense, a physician who relished the business of running a clinic as well as his time in the operating room — and who occasionally performed laser eye surgery on cats and dogs.
Paul Parravano said it’s hard to square the allegations with the man he has called a friend since they were roommates while Harvard undergraduates.
“It’s difficult for me to comprehend that with the Carmen, the eye surgeon and friend for life, that I know,” he said.
Parravano is blind, and according to Puliafito’s own telling, inspired him to go into the field of eye medicine. Although they live on different coasts — Parravano works in government and community relations for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — they regularly keep in touch. Parravano was best man at Puliafito’s wedding and flew to California for his 60th birthday party.
They call each other from time to time to chat about baseball, politics, and their Harvard undergrad days.
“He’s always been loyal,” Parravano said. “He calls, or I’ll call him. We have great memories of things we did in college. We went hitchhiking together when we were in college. We did a lot of adventurous things. He was always up for adventure.”
Puliafito went on to Harvard Medical School and got his training at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, a specialty hospital. He stayed there as a staff ophthalmologist until 1991.
That year he decamped for Tufts Medical Center, where he launched the New England Eye Center — competing for business with his former employer, Mass. Eye and Ear. He stayed at Tufts and taught at the affiliated Tufts University School of Medicine until 2001.
“Dr. Puliafito has been an innovator in the field of ophthalmology, and his work has led to many important discoveries,” Tufts Medical Center spokeswoman Rhonda Mann said in a statement. “He started the New England Eye Center in 1991 to serve the local community with the latest advancements in vision medicine and today, 15 years after he left, the Center is thriving, with more than 100,000 patient visits per year.”
Puliafito left Boston to run an eye institute at the University of Miami before becoming dean of USC’s Keck School of Medicine in 2007. He stepped down as dean last year but remained on the faculty.
On Friday, four days after the Times investigation was published, USC provost Michael W. Quick told the faculty: “Today, we were provided access to information of egregious behavior on the part of the former dean concerning substance abuse activities with people who aren’t affiliated with USC. This was the first time we saw such information first-hand.”
In his memo, Quick noted that substance abuse is a tragic and devastating disease, but he said the university is obligated to take action against Puliafito.
USC has hired a law firm to investigate the matter. Asked when the university became aware of Puliafito’s conduct, spokesman Eddie North-Hager said the university was waiting for the inquiry to “run its course.’’
“Our priority now is to obtain a clear picture of exactly what happened and to ensure the well-being and trust of our students at USC, the patients at the Keck School and our entire university community,” he said in an e-mailed statement.
When the Globe attempted to contact Puliafito, a woman who picked up the phone at a number listed for him said he was not speaking with reporters.
Mass. Eye and Ear declined to comment about Puliafito’s tenure there, and a Tufts University spokesman said no one was available to comment. Two high-ranking physicians who worked with Puliafito at Tufts declined to comment.
A 1993 Boston Globe profile of Puliafito called him a world-renowned researcher of lasers in medicine who was “simultaneously brilliant, boyish, moody, cheerful, engaging, brutally frank, entertaining, demanding, volatile and hard-nosed.”
“Puliafito is not grouchy; he is merely semi-volcanic,” the Globe story said. “Actually . . . he is more like one of those Yellowstone Park mud pots: placid on the surface for a few minutes, then erupting for a moment, then calm again.”
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Former dean of medicine at University of Southern California accused of holding drug-filled parties
Jul 24, 2017 | NY Daily News
By Elizabeth Elizalde
The former dean of the University of Southern California’s school of medicine lived a secret life filled with drug-fueled parties — and in one instance, his young companion overdosed in his presence, according to a Los Angeles Times investigation.
Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the former dean of the Keck School of Medicine, was captured in 2015 and 2016 videos and photos partying with drug users in hotel rooms, apartments and his office, the investigation reveals.
Puliafito, in one video, says, “Thought I’d take an ecstasy before the ball,” while he had an orange pill on his tongue before swallowing it.
Another video reviewed by the Times shows him using a glass pipe usually used for methamphetamine and blowing white smoke into the air.
Puliafito, who was highly respected by students and his colleagues, resigned from his $1.1 million dollar position as dean in March 2016. At the time he said he wanted to explore other opportunities.
The Washington Post reported that Puliafito stood on the medical staff.
Weeks prior, the 66-year-old’s companion, Sarah Warren, overdosed in his Pasadena hotel room. Police found methamphetamine in the room, but made no arrests, according to Times, which cited a police report.
Warren, then 21, told the newspaper she met Puliafito in 2015 while working as a prostitute. She recalled how she and Puliafito would do drugs together, and invited her along with friends to USC’s campus for after parties.
“He would say, ‘They love me around here,” Warren said. “The medical students think I am God.’”
The university released a statement after the Times’s story saying Puliafito was put on leave and from seeing patients.
C.L. Max Nikias, the university’s president, said in a letter to colleagues on Friday that the school has hired former federal prosecutor Debra Wong Yang to investigate Puliafito’s “conduct, the university’s response, as well as our existing policies and procedures.”
“We are outraged and disgusted by this individual’s behavior,” Nikias wrote. “It runs counter to our values and everything for which our university stands.”
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Questions Surround USC and Its Disgraced Ex-Med School Dean
Jul 24, 2017 | Medscape
By Marcia Frellick
Questions are multiplying after Carmen Puliafito, MD, who had been dean of the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles from 2007 to March of 2016, was suspended by the university on Friday, days after the Los Angeles Times revealed repeated instances of his illegal drug use.
USC officials said in a statement that they have "initiated the required process to terminate Dr Puliafito's employment at USC."
The Times, in extensive reports first made public July 17, detailed Dr Puliafito's drug use with young companions in 2015 and 2016 based on videos and witness accounts reporters obtained.
According to the Times, Dr Puliafito, 66, a renowned ophthalmologist and fundraiser for the university, used drugs including methamphetamine while he was dean. The partying reportedly happened in locations including hotel rooms, cars, and his campus office, in the company of much younger addicts and criminals.
In one video, Dr Puliafito is reportedly shown dressed in a tuxedo with an orange pill on his tongue saying, "Thought I'd take an Ecstasy before the ball."
In another, he heats a pipe used to smoke meth and inhales. Next to him a young woman appears to smoke heroin from heated foil.
According to the Times, reporters repeatedly contacted the university with questions about the dean for more than a year, sometimes describing information they had gathered.
"USC's leaders never responded to the inquiries. Numerous phone calls were not returned, emails went unanswered and a letter seeking an interview with USC President C.L. Max Nikias to discuss Puliafito was returned to The Timesby courier, unopened," according to the report.
In March 2016, Dr Puliafito resigned as dean, but continued as a faculty member and continued to accept new patients at campus eye clinics until mid-July 2017. His faculty page is now removed and a Pasadena number listed for him is disconnected."Obligation to Examine"
Asked about the university's responsibility over the past year, Art Caplan, PhD, director of the division of medical ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City, told Medscape Medical News, "This isn't getting information from some alt right fringe organization. This is a legitimate mainstream media organization and I think they have an obligation to examine what the charges are."
"You can't have leaders compromised by drug use setting a horrible example for students and other faculty, jeopardizing donor relationships and alumni relationships, so I think they were slow to move."
However, they weren't necessarily slow to decide to fire him, Dr Caplan added, given Dr Puliafito's right to due process.
"But I certainly think the weight of the evidence as it began to accumulate required a suspension while they took a look," he said. "He was in a pivotal, pivotal role."
Dr Caplan says the likely next step for Dr Puliafito will be rehabilitation. "Medicine tends to be kinder to doctors with addiction problems than other professions might be," he said.
He said suspension while Dr Puliafito undergoes treatment will likely be followed by loss of his medical license.
Additional fallout may include patients questioning the care they received from Dr Puliafito and donors may question their investments, he added.
According to the Times report, 3 weeks before he resigned Dr Puliafito was present when a 21-year-old woman overdosed in a Pasadena hotel room. She was treated and then returned to the party, according to the report.
Dr Puliafito continued to represent the university until the news broke a week ago. He was honored June 7, 2017, at a reception attended by 150 colleagues, friends, and former students "in recognition of his leadership and accomplishments as the former dean of the Keck School of Medicine." By Monday, the publicity around that event had been removed from the Keck website. The Times report said that Dr Puliafito estimated he brought in $1 billion in donations to the university and oversaw research grants totalling more than $200 million.
According to Keck's website, Dr Puliafito coinvented the technology of optical coherence tomography, and was the first to use this technology to study the human macula in health and disease.
"Egregious Behavior"In a memo dated July 21, Michael W. Quick, PhD, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, wrote after questions mounted about why the university did not act sooner:
"Because this is an issue that is concerning to our entire community, I am writing with an update on our actions regarding former medical school dean Carmen Puliafito. As I said in my memo on Wednesday, we are making decisions as best and as swiftly as we can, given the information we have at any particular time.
"I know many people wanted us to act on allegations and hearsay, but we needed actual facts. Today, we were provided access to information of egregious behavior on the part of the former dean concerning substance abuse activities with people who aren't affiliated with USC. This was the first time we saw such information first-hand. It is extremely troubling and we need to take serious action."
In a letter from USC president C. L. Max Nikias to the USC community he wrote, "Reports of high-powered executives, doctors, and others with substance abuse issues have become all too common — individuals who function in their workplace but have serious issues affecting their private lives."
"Our new dean of the medical school, Rohit Varma, who has been with us for the last 16 months, shares the view that we must be more aware of signs of distress in ourselves and in others, and be willing to raise our concerns."
The California Medical Board confirmed to the Times that it is investigating the allegations, but it does not comment publicly on such matters.
USC is a private university but gets public funding for medical research.
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Jul 24, 2017 | KFIAM (KFI)
sex and hookers and stuff like that was exclusive and usc had no longer than he appears in all that now we have reached on at least thought about it seemed like so and do is come on a dollars and about doctor harman only if ito the former dean of the medical school and usc . 2:23 PMwho resigned about three weeks after he watched a twenty one year old companion o. d. at a hotel room in pasadena %hesitation and then when he resigns nobody question his motives even vole someone had a witness to the incident had called the president's office now this was a man who brought in over a what was it how much money a million dollars in his ten year old more than that i would say millions of dots as money hand over fist for the universities or he resigns he's not going quietly you know he's not there we go bloody we mean you're leaving you can't leave you bring it you make us too much money is everything okay something happen right yeah i see maintains that they did know we eloped maybe this had something to do with it we we are now they kept him on they kept in mind for public events they they kept him on the faculty he continue do except impatience he was still being 2:24 PMby the school meaning they were giving him honored ... onerous for being the world renowned of a . ramallah just that he wants . he kept bringing in the next week cash suite in fund raising dollars suite cash now there was a six minutes . on collectibles and has witnessed the incident told on of calling president max nicki is his office and giving at least two people there an account of the overdose that holyfield witnessed demanded that they take action against the doctor on peace . as the guy who called said i'd never expect to call back but told . the us the employees that he would go to the media stiff action wasn't taken the assumption is mean if you connect the dots that don't say now read this article that the assumption is that that is the person who eventually tipped off the lifetimes as well . the la himes made repeated inquiries about leah vetoed two usc over the past 15 months and they said the first . 2:25 PMone was about a month after the overdose and a which would have been about a week after the medical school deem it announced his resignation now that should have been some sort of red light to anyone some red flags anybody in the administration a u. s. c. when only a feed %hesitation made a comment to the l. a. times all he said was he was resigning as dean because he was going to take a position in the biotech industry but that was the very last thing he said and that was fifteen months ago the monday after he resigned u. s. c. hosted a catered reception for him as the l. a. times writes on a sun splashed lani u. s. sees health sciences campus in boyle heights cells delightful as dozens of tech employees looked on nikki as sprays fully a fetus contributions to the school is dean bo bo we've talked with a reporter 2:26 PMeven went to nic yes in san marino dinner with his wife all about questions we need to talk about this guy we need talked about this guy the next date envelope was returned unopened to the times by career bid and even look at a in your spears my thinking max taking is nick yes knew exactly what the letter was of course the l. a. times have been dogging him at that point because what are you going to say about fully of veto we know he was in the hotel room we know that the girl overdosed we know that he's given mixed up with all of this we know that there's probably more dirt we know that this happened is weeks before he resigned what are you going to say about it he didn't even look at the envelope he never once looked at the letter on march of this year soared thirty year after the overdose and almost a year after their the resignation the l. a. times emails an interview request analyst a questions to max nikki s. it said hey 2:27 PMwe have got a reporter here have learned about that witness to the overdose call your office eyewitness has rolled on he said he or she tried to tell you about what . half that included and even included a recording of . nine or one called the employee a hotel employee made about the overdose and you can hear holyfield on that tape identifying himself as the doctors and not his girlfriend of a shield a budget drinks to sweeping up and when asked if you take anything else he says again and this is his voice i think just how they later found that it was nafta ciudad . ekeus did not respond to that two reporters visit his office that data aspirin interview chief is that the chief of staff says to those reporters the president will not be speaking to the crimes on this matter . ... ekeus did not reply to the final mean oftentimes requesting an interview before they decided to to run with the story of public and that's a that's the thing is a . like you know hey you you set this table and %hesitation you know some media organization comes do knocking on your door laying out for you a this is all hard evidence of something wrong going on so it's really rich when the school says after the times publishes this story oh my gosh that was going on we are so blind sided we had no idea you knew full well you knew for the past fifteen months b. one to keep the gravy train run and you had to keep those fund raising dollars flowing into u. s. c. if the stickiest has got to go because there i mean but probably a few other people need to go to bed at least one had needs to ralph aren't.
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