Health manager ‘ mystified’ by firing
Ron Mattson one of seven disciplined government staffers
A longtime B. C. public servant is “mystified” by his dismissal last week after an alleged privacy breach in the Ministry of Health, and insists he has done nothing wrong.
“This is appalling treatment for someone who has faithfully served the province of B. C. for 27 years,” Ron Mattson, a former project manager with the ministry’s pharmaceutical services division, said in a statement released to The Vancouver Sun Tuesday.
“I am shocked that the government would mention conflict of interest, inappropriate contract management and data access, and having contacted the RCMP in the same press release in which they announced my dismissal when I have done nothing wrong.”
Mattson is one of seven Ministry of Health employees who were either dismissed or suspended without pay over allegations patient medical data was wrongly shared with researchers.
Mattson said he believes the investigation by the health ministry, which is eventually to be shared with the RCMP, involves a research contract with the University of Victoria for an Alzheimer’s drug study.
Last Thursday, Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid suspended all data sharing with drug and evidence development researchers as part of a probe into a privacy breach that resulted in the firing of four employees and the suspension without pay of three others.
The government has released few details about the case. It has not revealed names or positions of those disciplined, or the type of medical research involved.
Sources say Rebecca Warburton, who had been a part- time co- director of research and evidence development at the ministry’s pharmaceutical services division, has been suspended without pay.
Warburton worked as an associate professor at the University of Victoria as well.
The university’s website says Warburton “conduct( ed) research into the costs and benefits of patient safety and quality improvement initiatives at the Vancouver Island Health Authority.”
The Vancouver Sun has also learned Warburton’s husband, Bill Warburton, did drug related research, but his government contract was terminated as part of the recent investigation.
In a biography for a 2009 Population Data BC conference, Bill Warburton was listed as executive director of the Child and Youth Development Trajectory Research Unit in the College of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of B. C.
That biography also said Bill Warburton is a “former Director of the Economic Analysis Branch in the B. C. Ministry of Human Resources.”
Bill Warburton would not comment, and his wife could not be reached.
Sources have also confirmed Dr. Malcolm Maclure, another co- director of research and evidence development in the same division, was suspended without pay.
Maclure is a professor in UBC’s anesthesiology, pharmacology and therapeutics department, and is also an adjunct professor at the University of Victoria and at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston. He could not be reached for comment.
The Times Colonist has reported the Health Ministry has also fired David Scott, a senior researcher in the analysis branch; Ramsay Hamdi, a senior economist in the utilization health care and risk management branch, and an unidentified co- op student. Hamdi, Scott and the student are represented by the B. C. Government Employees Union.
The government suspended without pay Bob Hart, the director of data access, research and stewardship.
The ministry last week also suspended $ 4 million in drug research contracts, some of which were awarded to UBC and UVic.
Mattson was a project manager with the Alzheimer’s Drug Therapy Initiative, which gathered clinical evidence to support patients receiving Pharmacare coverage for their medications. Those involved in the project include UBC, UVic’s Centre on Aging, and drug manufacturers.
Mattson, who is serving his sixth term as a town hall councillor in the community of View Royal, west of Victoria, said he was questioned about the Alzheimer’s initiative, but insisted he has no conflict of interest with the project.
His statement said he had not yet released any data to the university under this contract, and that arrangements being made to do so followed proper policies and ensured patient names would be kept anonymous.
Mattson added the $ 2.4 million contract was approved by a more senior person in the ministry.
Mattson’s lawyer, Christopher Siver, said the ministry’s actions are potentially defamatory and his client is considering legal action.
The ministry has declined to comment on the case this week, citing the investigation.
Meanwhile, a UBC- based panel of experts that investigates the safety of prescription drugs said the province’s temporary suspension of access to drug- related data has gone on too long.
“We’re deeply troubled by this and we think it’s really in the public interest that data access be reinstated,” Jim Wright, co- managing director of the Therapeutics Initiative, said Tuesday.
“It’s no longer acceptable. We’re now over two months without data access.”
The most significant effect is on an 11- member working group headed by Dr. Colin Dormuth, a Harvard educated researcher who uses health care databases and other information to track the effectiveness of certain drugs, Wright said.
Dormuth recently used the data to publish an internationally recognized study on the prescription patterns of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs for kids.“I consider Colin a real star. He’s going to be one of the leading researchers in the world in this area. Cutting him off and his group off is quite serious,” said Wright.
“Colin has a very good reputation internationally and they’ve always conducted their work with the highest research integrity. Any data they get is completely anonymized and encrypted, so there’s no possibility of any individuals being identified so there’s no issue around that either.”
Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B. C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS, warned last week that access to such data are critically important for researchers to be able to go about their daily work monitoring the safety and efficacy of drugs.
Last year, former assistant deputy health minister Ron Danderfer was sentenced to two years probation and fined $ 3,690 after pleading guilty to breach of trust for his part in a corruption scandal linked to a lucrative government plan to computerize health care records.
After the Danderfer case, the ministry tightened its rules around issuing health contracts to external agencies, but did not change the way it grants money to universities because they are part of the public system.
That process is now part of the ministry’s investigation.