Norman Wang, MD, has lost a lawsuit he filed against the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC, three physicians and a physicians’ group, TribLive reported March 27.
District Judge Marilyn Horan found that Dr. Wang failed to prove his claims of discrimination against the university and health system in the case that began in December 2020.
The lawsuit sought monetary damages for economic and emotional harm and alleged that Dr. Wang was targeted by his supervisors, the university and the hospital system after publishing an article about diversity, inclusion and equity in cardiology in the Journal of the American Heart Association in March 2020.
In the article, Dr. Wang argues that the medical profession had not reached its goals of increasing the percentages of underrepresented races and ethnicities, especially in cardiology. His article also claims that the field of cardiology was violating anti-discrimination laws in how it factored race into recruitment, admissions, hiring and promotion. But according to the judge’s summary of the case, officials at Pitt and UPMC did not learn of the article’s existence until July 29, 2020.
Dr. Wang was removed from his position as the director of the clinical electrophysiological fellowship program at UPMC two days later, a position he had held since 2017. Samir Saba, MD, the chief of cardiology at UPMC and Kathryn Berlacher, MD, the director of the cardiovascular fellowship training program at UPMC, initiated the removal of Dr. Wang. According to the report, the physicians, among others, were critical of Dr. Wang’s article and the Journal of the American Heart Association for publishing it.
On Aug. 5, 2020, Dr. Saba, along with other colleagues, emailed the journal’s editor-in-chief to remove the article, according to the report. The article was retracted the next day.
Dr. Wang sued in federal court on Dec. 15, 2020, and amended his lawsuit four times to include claims of a violation of his First Amendment rights, as well as retaliation. Dr. Wang alleged that Drs. Saba and Berlacher restricted him from interacting with residents, fellows and medical students and that his reputation was damaged by their actions.
Ms. Horan ultimately found that Drs. Saba and Berlacher were not acting under the color of state law when they violated his right to free speech, rather, they were acting in their roles as employees of the University of Pittsburgh Physicians, a private entity. She also dismissed the retaliation claim, stating that the publication and retraction of Dr. Wang’s article was not a protected employment activity.
J. Robert Renner, Dr. Wang’s attorney, told TribLive that they plan to appeal the case. He added that he was disappointed in the decision. “My concern is she really didn’t address the facts the plaintiff put in,” Mr. Renner told the publication.
Spokespeople for the university and the health system declined to provide comment to TribLive.
The post Cardiologist loses lawsuit against medical school alleging discrimination appeared first on Becker’s ASC.
