Topol leaving CCF

[atsai3]

This is a pretty big deal:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/business/10topol.html

High-Profile Doctor to Leave Position at Cleveland Clinic

By STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: February 10, 2006

The public face of the Cleveland Clinic, its outspoken cardiology chairman, Dr. Eric J. Topol, is leaving for academia after a divisive yearlong dispute with the clinic's chief executive, Dr. Delos M. Cosgrove.

Both Dr. Topol and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, his new employer, announced the move yesterday. Dr. Topol is scheduled to become a professor of genetics at the Case school of medicine, which is affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Topol said the job was a temporary appointment that would allow him to focus on his primary area of research, the genetics of heart disease.​

I think it would be reasonable to expect the Clinic's cardiology department to be gutted in the near future.

-AT.

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[spyyder]

How sad. Sick politics at work. Moral: Don't fark with Merck?

 

[p53]

How sad. Sick politics at work. Moral: Don't fark with Merck?

Better Moral: Don't Fuq with a Surgeon.

 

[lub-dub]

How come I didnt know anything about this until now???

Ok guys...No more drug-rep food and pens for me....This makes me sick!

 

[BlahtoThis]

I don't think it is fair to just blame this on the drug company or on the head of the clinic. This happens all over the business world and politics ... think about it ...

you have some big role with a hedge fund
the hedge fund is short selling (ie betting the stock price will go down for) some company
you testify against that company and actively voice your opposition to one of their major products

Now if you are big enough such that enough people would listen to you, your opposition to their product can be enough to take down the company or at least have a major impact on the stock price. I think Topol is pretty big.

The problem is the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic doesn't have a good relationship with Topol. Also, he has PLENTY of bad business dealings of his own which are discussed in the articles concerning this matter. This is really a major black eye for the Cleveland Clinic more than anybody else, because it suggests underhanded dealings at the highest levels of its administration and calls into question their credibility.

That said, the best thing for Topol is to be out of the Cleveland Clinic, sever ties with the hedge fund and other dealings that could further affect his credibility, and let things simmer down a bit. However, you can't vilify Merck for this.