Eric Topol claims that he was fired because he testified against Merck. The Cleveland Clinic argues that this is just coincidence.

At least 2 blogs have weighed in:

“One Horrible Debacle,” Indeed: Topol Fired

Enjoy the Silence

Although the timing certainly seems suspicious, I believe that all we can say for sure is that we have a True-True situation – but we do not really know if they are related.

Some of us look for conspiracies under every corner –

People always search for meaning. But in our confused and ever changing world we feel particularly perplexed when it comes to making sense of the problems that confront us. One of the most important ways in which an absence of meaning is experienced is the feeling that the individual is manipulated and influenced by hidden powerful forces – not just by spin-doctors, subliminal advertising, and the media, but also by powers that have no name. That is why we frequently attribute unexplained physical and psychological symptoms to unspecific forces caused by the food we eat, the water we drink, an extending variety of pollutants and substances transmitted by new technologies and other invisible processes. As a result, global warming is not simply a climatic phenomenon but an all-purpose evil that can account for a bewildering variety of destructive events.

from On the hunt for a conspiracy theory. I could just as easily make the case that Dr. Topol’s personality could have led to his dismissal. I understand his desire to blame this all on the Vioxx incident, but unless we have tapes of conversations we can never know.

I suspect that this incident may have been the straw the broke the camel’s back. But perhaps it really is coincidence.

I disagree with my good friend Roy Poses on this one. This is not a crisis situation. Dr. Topol still has an excellent faculty position and reputation. All executives in academic medicine serve at the whim of their boards. Some get fired for the right reasons, and some for the wrong reasons. Since we know nothing of his executive style, we should refrain from commenting on the firing. Rather we should concentrate on the lessons that the entire Vioxx experience should teach us.