Lawsuit resolved after cardiologist alleged he was fired over TAVR safety concerns
Interventional cardiologist Richard Zelman, MD, and his former employer, Cape Cod Healthcare, have resolved a lawsuit Zelman first filed in December 2022. Zelman had originally claimed he was terminated for sharing his concerns that Cape Cod Hospital and its CEO, Michael Lauf, were only allowing certain patients to be treated with a cerebral protection devices during transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures.
The Cape Cod Times has been following this lawsuit closely, even interviewing Lauf in February 2023. According to the publication’s latest report, the lawsuit has now been resolved to the “mutual satisfaction” of both parties.
Boston Scientific’s Sentinel cerebral protection devices were at the center of Zelman’s original concerns, the Cape Cod Times reported in 2023. He claimed that TAVR patients with higher insurance reimbursement rates were treated with the devices, while some other patients on Medicare or Medicaid were treated without them. Zelman said discussing these concerns led to his eventual termination.
The use of these devices has been a hot topic in interventional cardiology in recent years. At TCT 2022, for instance, one late-breaking study found that the Sentinel devices did not reduce a TAVR patient’s risk of stroke, but it may reduce their risk of a disabling stroke. Samir Kapadia, MD, chair of the department of cardiovascular medicine at Cleveland Clinic, discussed these findings at length in a video interview with Cardiovascular Business.
Click below for the latest report from the Cape Cod Times:
Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.