The Massachusetts Healthcare Whistleblower Act is a state law designed to protect health care providers from retaliation when they report problems in their medical facilities – retaliation like getting fired. Under the act’s protection, a Boston cardiologist last week filed a lawsuit against his former employer, Lahey Clinic Medical Center, claiming that he was fired for questioning ties between his hospital and the medical device company, Medtronic.
Dr. David Gossman, until September 9th of this year, was assistant director of the cardiac catheterization lab at Lahey, a non-profit teaching hospital affiliated with Tufts University School of Medicine.
His lawsuit claims that two senior cardiologists at the clinic pressured other doctors at the hospital to increase use of products manufactured by Medtronic, which makes the industry’s broadest line of heart valves, stents and angioplasty products, implantable cardiac defibrillators, pain pumps, and many other medical devices. It alleges that one of the cardiologists earns “substantial yearly income” serving on the Medtronic speakers’ bureau and that his wife has had a “lengthy employment” with Medtronic and holds stock in the company.
For more about this case, read: “I Was Fired For Fighting Hospital’s Ties With Medtronic” at my sister site, The Ethical Nag.
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