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Medical College in Tennessee Suspends Residency-Program Director Accused of Favoritism

June 26, 2011, 7:24 pm

East Tennessee State University’s College of Medicine has suspended the faculty member who was directing its residency program in internal medicine from administrative duties, pending an investigation into complaints that he fostered a hostile work environment and other allegations, the Johnson City Press reported. The faculty member, Hetal Brahmbhatt, remains an assistant professor at the college and is still seeing patients, a university spokesman said. The investigation followed anonymous complaints to the medical school’s accreditor accusing Dr. Brahmbhatt of favoritism to residents of Indian descent in matters such as setting work schedules, and giving those residents access to confidential information about other residents. The accreditor separately determined that some residents were working more hours than the limit. Officials of the college said they had reviewed the allegations and determined that further investigation was warranted.

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  • manoflamancha

    Just take a look at Indian academics nationwide, and you’ll see a similar complaint: they hire the homeboys first and defer to them in practice. It is quite dangerous to allow foreign nationals to hold any administrative positions. They do not understand the American way, and our Bill of Rights.

    We should ban the use of taxpayers dollars, such as NSF grants, to support their graduate study in USA . More than 50% of graduate enrollees in science and engineering is quite enough! Best practice is to set up extension programs in their home countries, as is being done by Texas A&M, and others.

  • 22036365

    This is simply a frightening, xenophobic comment.  How can you comment on what is “best practice”?  Have you seen any studies speaking to this specific issue?  Or is the idea of best practice simply what you conceive it to be?

    If there are particular issues on specific campuses they should be addressed.  Just as was done here.  But to generalize in such a way is, to me, incomprehensible.

  • manoflamancha

    There is an old saying: “Throw a handfull of rocks at a pack of dogs, and the ones that yelp were the ones that got hit” Did I hear you just yelp? Xenophobic, my word, you never improve on your baiting techniques, do you? A vast experience of observations on the conduct of  Indian students and faculty allow me to genearlize; most Americans are too timid to tackle the issue owing to the PC control of campuses, but be assured they are thinking the same thing. The issues and campuses are too numerous to list here. And most academics are too intimadated to write about it in any systematic and general way. Your time here has been overspent, so you must go home, with our blessing. Is that comprehensible enough for you? You’ve become very tiresome to one and all.   

  • 22036365

    What a shame – and how sad – that you see a need to throw handfuls of rocks.  I am genuinely grateful that my peers and my professors during my student days – American nationals and not – did not carry this same narrow, mean-spirited attitude.  You’ve managed to degrade an entire nationality via your “vast experience” of one.  By the way, I’m not from India, but it appears you’re more than ready to throw objects at anyone who doesn’t agree with your outlook or sound like you.

  • katisumas

    Perhaps you might consider chasing windmills instead of people?

  • inlibrarian

    The problem with this situation is that the resident had to anonymously complain the the accreditors. Surely he was not the sole authority at the residency program, even if he was at the top. I understand that residents would be reluctant to go “whining” to other supervisors, but the supervisors should have been paying attention; everyone needs to be accountable to someone.

  • orwellsdisciple

    Undoubtedly some of that kind favoritism goes on, but I saw little of it.  Far more common in my experience is a predatory dynamic, with senior scientists of foreign nationality often exploiting underlings working on a visa and/or vying for citizenship.  Grad students have a little more protection because they are of course students, and the university has some obligation to look after them.  Post docs however are extremely vulnerable.

    Of course the importation of huge numbers of foreign nationals into our labs (which I do not oppose on the face) is a direct result of our society deciding that educating and training scientists, and then providing commensurate compensation once they have achieved that training, is just too expensive.  Enter brain drain.  Which I do oppose.

    Instead we pay our homegrown MBAs handsome sums to imagine new ways of outsourcing, or credit card usury, or liar loans, or other manner of imaginary wealth management that adds zero to the real economy.  Outright cannibalism.   While thinking people working on serious problems are marginalized.   Some years ago my advisor took a position as a director of a research division in big pharma.   Which, like many other big pharma divisions, has since shuttered whole swaths of its US operations.  So now he does no science *at all* but instead travels to china brokering deals to export the work to people who will.  To his credit, he hates it.

  • mes27

    Mark is certainly more than qualified to lead this initiative and it will be great to watch this exciting endeavor as it unfolds.

  • larry67

    Are you made or what ? how many indian origin in white house and how many % is indian origin doc here do you have any idea ? Are you living in world largest democracy nation and you are talking like this ? Are you educated or not i am doubtful about that Dear what world you are living. What you talking about rubbish about loan and grants Let me tell you they( Bank/SBA/federaGovt ) more trust in indian more then white and black do you know why indian origin have more hotels and motels owner pls check AAHOA you willshut your mouth.Do you know your dad and mom came from what country you may be not, you born here does not mean you ????? And  what you are talking about damm bill og rights there is nothing like that mention . Front of you OBAMA is president damm it his father came from out of usa got it and we people only elected him got it…Indian origin is paying more tax then you damm it.Our society is more trust in indian origin doc then other….When anybody get us citizen he is american and you dont talk about home country

  • larry67

    I am agree with you 100 %. Because we dont have enough highly educated ,proffesional doc ,scientist, IT  so we have to borrow from outside and this is happen,, so we have to make our kids to go higher education then it might be not happen