Becker's Hospital Review

33 33 CEO/STRATEGY Ex-New York hospital CEO's severance package focus of criminal probe By Ayla Ellison T he Onondaga County District Attorney's office and the New York Inspector General are investigating SUNY's Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, ac- cording to the Times Union. Here are seven things to know: 1. The Onondaga County District Attorney has launched a broad grand jury investigation of Upstate Medical Univer- sity that focuses on hiring decisions, severance packages and construction projects, according to the report. 2. Sources told the Times Union the grand jury investiga- tion is examining a severance package awarded to former Upstate Medical University Hospital CEO John McCabe, MD, who was paid $660,500 for a 14-month off-campus as- signment that involved no work, according to documents obtained by syracuse.com. The payment was part of a con- fidential nondisclosure agreement syracuse.com obtained through a freedom of information law request. 3. A person briefed on the grand jury investigation told the Times Union the district attorney is scrutinizing the deal, which was approved by the university's president, because it may have provided payment of public dollars without consideration of work. 4. Dr. McCabe told syracuse.com Sept. 7 that he has not been contacted by anyone from the offices of the district attorney or the inspector general. 5. A $200 million building project that was overseen by Upstate Medical University's former chief of staff and senior vice president, Sergio Garcia, is also a focus of the investigation, a source briefed on the probe told the Times Union. Mr. Garcia resigned from his position in May after a report from the Times Union debunked several assertions he made in a 2017 speech, including a story about how he narrowly escaped a car bombing in Afghanistan. 6. Mr. Garcia told syracuse.com Sept. 7 he has not heard from anyone involved in the investigation. 7. Onondaga District Attorney William J. Fitzpatrick con- firmed his office is working cooperatively with New York Inspector General Catherine Leahy Scott on an investiga- tion into several issues at Upstate Medical University. How- ever, he declined to comment further when contacted by the Times Union, citing the ongoing investigation. n Mark Zuckerberg to sell $13B in Facebook stock to help cure major diseases By Julie Spitzer M ark Zuckerberg is selling $13 bil- lion in Facebook stock to fund a new goal: curing, preventing or managing all diseases "in our children's life- time," CNBC reported. Mr. Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, MD, run the philanthropic investment group the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. eir re- search center, the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, funds ambitious young scientists with big goals, such as Markita Landry, PhD, a chem- ical engineer who runs a lab at UC Berkeley and seeks to develop technology that could measure the chemistry of the brain. "As scientists, we tend to think about moving in increments of weeks or months, but Mark prompted me to talk about the potential impact in years or even decades," Dr. Landry explained. Last year, Mr. Zuckerberg vowed to sell up to 75 million shares of Facebook to fund the initiative. Just this year, he has sold 29 million shares, adding more than $5.3 billion to CZI. One of CZI's mission statements is to sup- port "scientific research to cure, prevent and manage all diseases in our children's lifetime." In 2016, Mr. Zuckerberg said "we have a real shot at preventing, curing or managing" most diseases in the next 100 years, namely heart disease, cancer, stroke, and neurodegenera- tive and infectious diseases, CNBC reported. Although some have been sketpictical about the project's ambitious ideas, CZI employees say the mission statement guides their work. Aer all, CZI seeks to take "multiple big shots on goal, rather than making a single bet on a person or a disease," said Marc Malandro, PhD, the CZI science team's vice president of operations. "I agree that it would be a tough sell if we were a research institution thinking that we alone are going to cure, prevent and manage all disease," said Dr. Malandro. "But what we're talking about doing is developing data, en- abling scientists, funding scientists and help- ing drive culture change around open science." Dr. Chan understands CZI's goals may seem far-fetched, but said the initiative aims to "fo- cus on empowering scientists with tools to unlock their work and the field — that goal could be within our reach." "We believe that greater collaboration across science and technology is key to giving more people an equal shot at living healthy and prosperous lives," Dr. Chan told CNBC. "We're proud to play a role in making that happen." n

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