A Farmington, Conn.-based UConn Health orthodontics director and visiting Yale School of Medicine associate professor and two graduate dental school students took a photograph with two severed heads during a workshop at Yale last year, according to the International Business Times.
Here are five things to know about the incident.
1. The photograph was taken last June during the 2017 DePuy Synthes Future Leaders Workshop, which was held at the New Haven, Conn.-based Yale School of Medicine.
2. The photograph, which was first obtained by the Associated Press, reportedly depicted visiting associate professor Flavio A. Uribe, DDS, and two unidentified graduate dental school students looking at the camera with two severed heads face up on tables. Others in the room continued to work, and all possessed surgical masks.
3. Dr. Uribe reportedly told the Associated Press, "Somebody unfortunately took a photo. It was so quick. I wasn’t sure of the surroundings or scenery at that point."
4. A spokesperson for the Yale School of Medicine said the cadavers were not donated to Yale, and it is unclear from where they were obtained. He also said there were signs at laboratory entrances forbidding photography.
"The photograph taken at a symposium at Yale was disturbing and an inexcusable deviation from anything Yale would expect to occur," the spokesperson said in a statement to the Associated Press. "Yale is developing a centralized coordinating function to ensure adequate oversight is provided for use of anatomical parts in any training conducted at the school."
5. The Yale spokesperson added, "The faculty member who was involved in the training at which the photograph was taken has been informed of Yale's expectations in this regard," according to the International Business Times.
To access the full report, click here.
Editor's note: Becker's Hospital Review reached out to the Yale School of Medicine for comment and will update the article as more information becomes available.