2. Background of Organization
• James B. Duke established the Duke Endowment in 1924, where he used
part of his $40-billion gift to transform Durham’s Trinity College into Duke
University. In 1925, Duke made a request for the Duke School of
Medicine, Duke School of Nursing, and Duke Hospital to be established
(Duke Medicine). After starting in North Carolina, the organization
continued to grow into neighboring states, throughout the U.S., and even
worldwide. Duke Medicine has grown into one of the nation’s leading
research institutions over the past 75+ years, and the Duke University Health
System is among these educational and clinical institutions.
3. Background of Organization
• The Duke University Health System, also known as DUHS, was officially
created in 1998.
4. Background of Crisis
• In 2010, Dr. Anil Potti, a Duke University cancer researcher, resigned from his
job after questions and concerns were raised about his research and studies
on personalized cancer treatments (Huffington Post). Potti was under
suspicion because of putting that he was a Rhodes Scholar in his
credentials, and he started to face the label of conducting medical fraud.
5. Background of Crisis
• There were over 112 participants who signed up to be a part of Potti’s
research, and they trusted in Potti knowing that this trial could be their last
chance. Nearly a dozen of these participants and/or their families sued the
university administrators, researchers and physicians for ignoring the
warnings and letting the trial go on while hiding the information. The
American Cancer Society also suspended hundreds of thousands of dollars
in grant money, which was meant to fund Potti’s work (Huffington Post).
6. Organizational Response
• The verbal responses that took place during the Potti allegations include:
the Duke President sending an email stating that Duke immediately started
internal investigations to Potti’s credentials, press releases stating the false
credentials were found and further investigation was underway, a research
misconduct inquiry which has to happen by Duke policies and by Federal
law, and statements from Duke administrators to the Duke Chronicle, local
newsletters/papers, etc. The statements were very few at first because Duke
was gathering their thoughts and facts, and everything shows that they first
stated that they were investigating the allegations further.
7. Organizational Response
• Non-verbal responses from the university included: making Potti take an
administrative leave, organizing an investigation team, and stopping the
trial completely. The university had to make Potti take an administrative
leave in order to be able to conduct correct investigations. By organizing an
investigation team promptly, Duke was able to show that they cared about
the crisis and that they were doing what needed to be done for the health
and respect of the clients involved with the trial.
8. Media Response
• The media responded to the crisis in several different ways because word
got out about the crisis before the university was able to even put out a
statement. Newsletters, newspapers, social media, and much more were
‘blowing up’ with information about the crisis before Duke could even grab a
hold of it themselves. The media responded just like media responds to any
other crisis, but that can be a problem because several articles had many
corrections made to them because they were made before actual
statements from the university were released.
9. Stakeholders Response
• Families sued the university for Potti’s false credentials
• The American Cancer Society suspended the $729,000 of grant money
towards Potti’s trial
• Potti had 10+ papers retracted from prestige medical journals after the truth
came out
10. Recommendations
• Duke should have had a better response rate for the media and it could have
done this by having an organizational plan ready for such instances.
• Duke should have never let the trial restart after the first allegations and
questions were raised because after the second time it made them look very
under minded.
• Apology: An apology was sent out, but Duke could have done a better job at
apologizing to families involved and giving back to the families that put so
much trust into one of Duke’s very own doctors.
