From thestar.com
Fifteen years before scandal engulfed the Hospital for Sick Children’s Motherisk lab, SickKids, by its own acknowledgment, had every right to fire the doctor in the middle of it all.
In late 1999, Dr. Gideon Koren was identified as the author of “poison pen letters” sent to SickKids doctors and the media during a heated dispute with a whistleblower colleague, Dr. Nancy Olivieri. For months, Koren had denied writing the anonymous letters that disparaged Olivieri and her four supporters as “a group of pigs,” among other insults. He confessed only after DNA testing provided irrefutable proof.
“Your actions constitute gross misconduct and provide sufficient grounds for dismissal,” the former presidents of SickKids and the University of Toronto wrote in an April 2000 decision following a disciplinary hearing on Koren, whom they upbraided for “repeatedly lying” and showing a “reckless dereliction of duty.”
But, citing his research achievements and the many young doctors he supervised, who they said would be “disproportionately disadvantaged” if Koren were fired, they instead docked him two months’ pay, fined him $35,000 and continued his suspension until June 1, 2000.
Koren remained head of the Motherisk Program he founded in 1985.
The Motherisk scandal has cast doubt over thousands of child protection decisions across Canada that relied on the hair-testing lab’s flawed drug and alcohol tests, and prompted a re-examination of some of the program’s influential research on drug safety in pregnancy.
It has also raised questions about the hospital’s decision to stand by Koren, which suggests “the institution valued image over the safety of patients,” said SickKids doctor Brenda Gallie, who was among Olivieri’s defenders.
James Turk, a Ryerson University professor and former head of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, which led an extensive investigation into the Olivieri affair, said the Motherisk crisis makes clear “there is a fundamental institutional problem that needs to be addressed.”
“(SickKids has) to detail what they did wrong in the past. Unless they can show they understand the problems they caused, there’s no reason to think that their solutions are going to solve those problems,” he said. “You can’t just say, let bygones be bygones.”
Koren is currently under investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, after SickKids sent the medical regulator findings from its internal investigation of Motherisk’s operations. Koren retired from SickKids in 2015 when the hospital closed the Motherisk lab and reassigned leadership of the Motherisk Program. He did not respond to requests for comment.
In an interview, SickKids CEO Michael Apkon detailed the steps the hospital has taken to prevent a repeat of the events at Motherisk, including new guidelines for expert evidence, and creating an externally supported “whistleblower hotline.” The hospital has also revised its conflict-of-interest policies in light of “concerns the public has raised about Dr. Koren’s research funding,” he said.
However, Apkon, who was appointed CEO in January 2014, would not discuss the Olivieri affair, saying, “I really can’t speak to the time prior to me being here.”
Rose Patten, the chair of the hospital’s governing board of trustees, also declined to comment. “The keen interest in the possibility of common themes across events of the past is appreciated and understandable. However, we find it really hard and inappropriate to speculate on actions or decisions that were taken on past events by others,” she said.
The faculties of pharmacy and medicine at the University of Toronto, where Koren held cross-appointments with SickKids, did not address questions about Koren’s past in an email response to queries from the Star.
Read more here