Gideon Koren

Gideon Koren, FACMT, FRCP(C) (Hebrew: גדעון קורן; born August 27, 1947) is an Israeli-Canadian pediatrician, clinical pharmacologist, toxicologist, and composer. While in medical school in 1971, Koren founded The Brothers and The Sisters, a prominent Israeli musical group during the 1970s and early 1980s, for which he was the manager and principal composer. Koren emigrated to Canada in 1982, where he worked as a physician at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and served as a professor at the University of Toronto. In 1985, Koren established Motherisk, a clinical and research program at The Hospital for Sick Children that later closed following controversy. Several scientific publications by Koren have been subject to scrutiny over academic and research practices, resulting in the retraction of six articles and the issuance of editorial expressions of concern for others. Koren relinquished his licence to practise medicine in Canada during an investigation into allegations of professional misconduct and incompetence related to his leadership of the Motherisk laboratory. The laboratory became the focus of a scandal that raised concern about the reliability of forensic toxicology testing used in approximately 16,000 child protection cases and six criminal cases. An independent review concluded that Koren and his staff lacked the qualifications required for the forensic testing performed. In 2018, The Toronto Star published an investigative report identifying concerns in Koren’s research, including inadequate peer review, undeclared conflicts of interest, and inaccuracies in methodology. This reporting contributed to further retractions of Koren’s scientific publications. Before the Motherisk controversy, Koren was reprimanded by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for sending anonymous harassing letters to physician Nancy Olivieri and three colleagues, and for initially denying responsibility. Initially Koren denied the charges; DNA evidence (saliva from the envelopes) from the letters incriminated him, resulting in his removal as...