David Wolman, writing in Wired, chronicles the efforts of an Illinois physics professor, George Gollin (bio), to topple a $7 million fake-degree empire. It’s a fun story, and well worth a read, but the part that will most interest health journalists pops up at the very end: The professor who took down the operation that granted about 9,600 fake degrees used by everyone from schoolteachers to Bush White House staffers is now looking into what he thinks is a phony online medical school.
Wolman ends with this sketch of the professor at work:
He erases equations from a blackboard and scribbles a spider’s web of names, notes, and online sites all relating to an outfit called St. Luke School of Medicine, which he believes sells bogus medical degrees. “You get a real rise out of people when you talk about fake MDs,” he says.
The outfit in question, St. Luke School of Medicine, has now posted a message announcing it’s no longer accepting new students. However, if Gollin’s previous work (in his own words) is any indication, St. Luke is probably just one entry point into a universe of dubious medical degrees.
NOTE: As the Wired story makes clear, media outlets played a major role in the effort to expose the first diploma mill, especially by shaming public institutions into investigating and prosecuting the offenders. Reporters like The Spokesman-Review‘s Bill Morlin and Jim Camden helped connect the dots and expose the full reach of the story.
