As New York City's Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center grapples with blurred lines between its nonprofit mission and its leadership's ties to corporations, other major medical centers are re-evaluating their own leadership, according to a joint report from ProPublica and The New York Times.
The report provides an in-depth overview of the issue at Memorial Sloan Kettering, which the publications have been reporting on since last fall. In September, ProPublica and The New York Times found the medical center's CMO, José Baselga, MD, PhD, failed to disclose financial relationships to pharmaceutical and other healthcare companies in more than 100 papers published in major medical research journals. Dr. Baselga resigned days later. The cancer center was also under fire for its relationship with startup Paige.AI, which was founded by MSK insiders who had potential conflicts of interest.
MSK is not alone, however. Now many other leading cancer centers are re-evaluating their own leadership as concerns mount about research bias and conflicting duties to patients and shareholders, according to the report.
Officials from Boston-based Dana-Farber Cancer Institute are re-examining the boards President and CEO Laurie Glimcher, MD, is a member of, which include drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. Seattle-based Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center appointed a task force to review its employee conflict-of-interest policies, according to the report.
MSK's CEO, Craig Thompson, MD, has resigned from the board of Merck and the board of Charles River Laboratories.
Read the full story here. In a related report, The New York Times and ProPublica listed the board directorships of top cancer executives here.
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