A Staff in Turmoil
Tensions among doctors at the hospital over conflicts of interests mounted through September. On Sept. 28, Colin Begg, PhD, the chairman of its department of epidemiology and biostatistics, wrote to other department heads. “The key substantive issue is that the problems we face were not caused by failures to disclose conflicts. The problems were due to the conflicts themselves,” he wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by the Times and ProPublica.
Referring to Dr. Thompson and Douglas A. Warner III, the outgoing chairman of the hospital’s board of managers and overseers, who is known as Sandy, he said: “As far as I can tell neither Sandy nor Craig understand this very basic point. And if you don’t recognize that a problem exists there is no chance you will solve it.”
He also said: “Making billions is not our mission. MSK is a nonprofit with a fundamentally social mission.”
Dr. Begg declined to comment.
Shortly before the doctors met on Oct. 1, Dr. Thompson sounded a conciliatory note. “I want to start by apologizing to the medical staff on behalf of myself and the rest of senior management,” he said, according to a draft transcript of the staff meeting. “The events of the last few weeks have not been handled as well as I would have liked.”
Mr. Warner also addressed the doctors, informing them that the board was assessing whether Dr. Thompson should remain on Merck’s board.
“Should Craig continue to sit on the Merck board? We have no policy on that,” Mr. Warner said, according to the transcript, noting that Dr. Thompson’s role on the board was initially seen as a “good thing” when he joined the hospital. “We need to step back from that now and ask ourselves whether that continues to be appropriate, whether it’s appropriate in the future.”
The next day, Oct. 2, Dr. Thompson announced that he was resigning from both the boards on which he served.
Requests to interview Dr. Thompson and Mr. Warner were declined. Instead, the hospital arranged for reporters to speak to Dr. DeAngelis, who said she saw nothing wrong with the corporate ties that Dr. Thompson had earlier said were under review.
She downplayed the concerns voiced by Dr. Begg about the culture of the hospital. ”He is a biostatistician. He does not work with patients. He works with data,” she said, adding that he does not have “as full an understanding” about policies to prevent doctors with corporate ties from having an undue influence on clinical trials.
Dr. Thompson and two deputies, including Dr. DeAngelis, sent a note to hospital doctors on Dec. 20, warning them about this article. While it mentioned the ongoing review, it offered a full-throated defense of those serving on corporate boards.
“We expect the piece to question the ethics of some of our most accomplished researchers and clinicians. We want you to know that we reject these insinuations and we stand behind our faculty 100 percent.”
Katie Thomas covers the pharmaceutical industry for The New York Times.