Becker's Spine Review

11 SPINE SURGEONS Fired Swedish Health Neurosurgeon Receives $17.5M Award in Wrongful Termination Suit By Laura Dyrda A n arbitrator awarded former Seattle-based Swedish Health neurosurgeon David Newell, MD, millions of dollars in connection with his firing last year, which he contends was due to questioning the practices of a colleague; the health system disagrees, according to the Seattle Times. Here are five things to know: 1. Dr. Newell reportedly raised internal concerns about Johnny Delashaw, MD, another former Swedish neurosurgeon. At the time, Dr. Delashaw was a "star sur- geon" with the system, but has since faced scrutiny and the state suspended his license. Swedish dismissed Dr. Newell last year, and he sued the system for lost earnings and emotional distress. 2. In addition to the firing, Dr. Newell argued Dr. Delashaw was instrumental in "dismantling" his practice and harassing him. 3. Swedish Health contested the decision and is challenging the arbiter's award. The health system reportedly fired Dr. Newell for not disclosing he spent time in jail connected to a local prostitution sting. 4. Swedish Health is also contesting the lost earnings award, reporting that Dr. Newell would need to perform 3,000 complex brain-aneurysm repairs per year to equal the award amount. 5. Dr. Newell continues to perform surgeries at Swedish's Cherry Hill campus in Seattle, and the state will hold a hearing in October about whether to reinstate Dr. Delashaw's license. n Drs. Todd Lanman, Mustafa Khan & More: 9 Spine, Neurosurgeons Making Headlines By Mackenzie Garrity Here are nine spine and neurosurgeons making headlines. Spine surgeon Mustafa Khan, MD, joined the Milwaukee Orthopaedic Group. Todd H. Lanman, MD, presented on artificial disc replacement at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons' Annual 2017 Meeting Oct. 10 in Boston. Neurosurgeon Lee Titsworth, MD, PhD, joined Baptist Health Medical Group Neurosurgery in Paducah, Ky. Naperville, Ill.-based Edward Hospital welcomed David Peng, MD. Continental Who's Who honored Fredrick Junn, MD, as a Pinnacle Professional Member in the medical field. Atlanta-based Resurgens Spine Center welcomed Uzodu Agochukwu, MD, Vamsi Kancherla, MD, and Christopher Blanchard, DO. Neurosurgeon Mukesh Misra, MD, invested in TeleHealth365 n 91.6% of Spine Surgeons Have Financial Ties to Industry: 5 Things to Know By Laura Dyrda A new study published in Spine examined the relation- ship between spine surgeons and industry. Study authors gathered data from the Open Payments database to determine industry payment prevalence among orthopedic and neurospine surgeons. ere were 5,898 spine surgeons in- cluded in the data. However, the study did not include ownership or research payments. Study authors examined training, experience, practice setting and degree type of each surgeon. Here are the findings: 1. Nearly all — 91.6 percent — of spine surgeons reported at least one financial relationship with industry. 2. On average, spine surgeons receive $994.07 from industry per year. 3. Around 6 percent of the surgeons in the database received more than $1 mil- lion from industry and accounted for 83.5 percent of all payments. 4. Factors associated with industry pay- ments were: • Orthopedic training • Academic practice setting • Male gender • Practicing in the West or South 5. ere was a strong inverse relation- ship between the years of experience and number of industry payments, ac- cording to a linear regression analysis. n

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