Carmen A. Puliafito

Carmen Anthony Puliafito (born January 5, 1951) is an American ophthalmologist and former academic administrator. From 2007 until March 2016, he was dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

In 2017, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Puliafito had engaged in parties with young recreational drug users and prostitutes, including at the Keck School's offices, and that Puliafito had smoked methamphetamine at these events.

Early life and education Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Puliafito received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1973 and a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School in 1978. He completed a residency in ophthalmology and a fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Puliafito also earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Before that, he had been director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami, and chair of the department of ophthalmology. The institute has regularly been ranked as the best eye hospital and vision research center in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. In 2012, he was 21st of the highest-paid research university executives in the United States. While dean, he served on the board of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles.

In March 2016, Puliafito resigned as dean of the Keck School of Medicine, and USC professor Rohit Varma was appointed interim dean. After leaving USC, he took a role as chief of strategic development with a pharmaceutical company called Ophthotech that was developing new drugs for eye diseases; he was laid off along with 80% of the staff in December 2016 when two phase III clinical trials produced negative results.

Puliafito's California medical license was revoked based on disciplinary orders on August 17, 2018.

Research Puliafito was one of the inventors of optical coherence tomography; In 2012, Fujimoto, Swanson, and David Huang, with Puliafito and Joel Schuman, received an António Champalimaud Vision Award from the Champalimaud Foundation.

Puliafito participated in research into the use of bevacizumab for the treatment of retinal disorders. The reporters reviewed video and photographs of Puliafito engaging in these activities in hotel rooms, apartments, and the dean's office.

In July 2022, Paul Pringle, the reporter who first uncovered and reported the story of Puliafito's activities, published a book entitled Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels. It describes his year-long struggle to get the story published over the objections of his superiors at the Times, who did not want to offend USC. Pringle's investigation of the case began with the March 2016 incident, but the paper refused to publish it. He and colleagues persisted, continuing to research the case until the report was finally published in July 2017, long after Puliafito had resigned as dean.

Personal life Puliafito and his wife, Janet Pine, had three children. A psychiatrist, Pine met Puliafito while they were students at Harvard Medical School. He was fired by USC for engaging in a pattern of illegal drug use and sometimes partied with a group of drug users in his USC offices.

As of 2019, in a Final Decision & Order on behalf of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine, the Board revoked Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito’s right to renew his medical license after it found that he had been disciplined in California for conduct that undermines the public confidence in the medical profession.