A medical journal says the case reports it has published for 25 years are, in fact, fiction

[erronis]

https://retractionwatch.com/2026/03/03/canadian-pediatric-society-journal-correction-case-reports-fictional-paediatrics-child-health/

A Canadian journal has issued corrections on 138 case reports it published over the last 25 years to add a disclaimer: The cases described are fictional.

Paediatrics & Child Health, the journal of the Canadian Paediatric Society, has published the cases since 2000 in articles for a series for its Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program. The articles usually start with a case description followed by "learning points" that include statistics, clinical observations and data from CPSP. The peer-reviewed articles don't state anywhere the cases described are fictional.

The corrections come following a January article in New Yorker magazine that mentioned one of the reports -- "Baby boy blue," a case published in 2010 describing an infant who showed signs of opioid exposure via breast milk while his mother was taking acetaminophen with codeine. The New Yorker article made public an admission by one of the coauthors that the case was made up.

"Based on the New Yorker article, we made the decision to add a correction notice to all 138 publications drawing attention to CPSP studies and surveys to clarify that the cases are fictional," Joan Robinson, editor-in-chief of Paediatrics & Child Health, told Retraction Watch. "From now on, the body of the case report will specifically state that the case is fictional."

. . .

As this article states, a lot of follow-on research has been done based on these fictional histories.

It's not just AI that is making things up.

[Tasmanian Devil]

1. Fictional was requested

Wow. Just amazing.

The journal decided when it first started publishing the article type “that the cases should be fictional to protect patient confidentiality,” Robinson told us. “Apart from the case that led to the recent New Yorker article, all or almost all were cases of very well recognized conditions (such as congenital syphilis, fetal alcohol syndrome, serious trauma from ATVs, hepatitis C infection) where a single case report would not generate any interest or ever be cited.”

[Easterncedar]

2. It was an excellent article

The bottom line was that a child was probably murdered, and no one was charged.

[Earthrise]

3. Fictionalized cases are super common in medical education -

The fictionalized case present a variety of symptoms that typically don’t all occur in any one patient.

I think what I am seeing here is lack of science/medical knowledge on the part of the New Yorker journalist, fact checkers, and editors.

[erronis]

4. Wouldn't the journal post a disclaimer for each article?

I don't know (obviously) the protocol for these types of articles, but just as in many documentaries there could be a statement such as "The characters represented are not those in real life...."

Thanks for your insights.

[Earthrise]

7. I'm not sure when or where such a disclaimer may appear -

I know that I’ve read enough of these in books that I assume any case discussed at the start of an article or book chapter is fictionalized - for the privacy of individuals who’ve been treated as well as the desire to create a vivid example that combines a variety of symptoms. Unless I see a statement that says that the case is real and identifying information has been changed to protect the client’s privacy I assume the case is fictionalized.

[GreatGazoo]

5. Why not use real cases?

They have thousands to choose from.

[Earthrise]

8. Privacy concerns - even if identifying information has been changed and...

I know that I’ve read enough of these in books that I assume any case discussed at the start of an article or book chapter is fictionalized - for the privacy of individuals who’ve been treated as well as the desire to create a vivid example that combines a variety of symptoms. Unless I see a statement that says that the case is real and identifying information has been changed to protect the client’s privacy I assume the case is fictionalized.

[Tasmanian Devil]

6. Thanks

I guess HIPAA and the difficulties of data anonymization makes this a reasonable thing to do. And those of us outside medicine need to adjust assumptions.