Fired researcher was evaluating anti-smoking program

[jimsenchuk]

Fired researcher was evaluating anti-smoking program with drugs that can cause severe reactions
Work never completed on B.C. health ministry study

When PhD student Roderick MacIsaac was fired from the Ministry of Health, his study of an anti-smoking program that was to be used in the evaluation of B.C.’s controversial Smoking Cessation Program was halted.

MacIsaac was one of seven ministry health researchers terminated in 2012, and he committed suicide in the months that followed.

Since then, the government has apologized for MacIsaac’s “heavy-handed” dismissal and has rehired or settled lawsuits with the majority of the other workers.

MacIsaac’s program evaluation did not continue despite evidence that the two pharmaceutical drugs covered by the provincial smoking cessation program, launched in 2011, can cause severe adverse reactions in patients, including death.

In November 2012, two months after he was fired, MacIsaac discussed his research with a former co-worker in an email provided exclusively to The Sun.

“I was working on the 2011 Smoking Cessation Program evaluation, and my role was as a co-op student in the Ministry of Health. My job was to set up a prototype model based on a much smaller and earlier program offered by social services in 2007,” said MacIsaac, who was unable to complete his PhD and died one month after he wrote this email.

“The successes and failures of this prototype model then would be used to evaluate the much larger 2011 program.”

The email was given to The Sun by the NDP, which received permission to release it from MacIsaac’s family.

“Roderick was very interested in doing research on smoking cessation because his mother had died of lung cancer, and he had been her care giver,” said NDP MLA Adrian Dix (Vancouver-Kingsway).

But both Dix and University of Victoria drug policy researcher Alan Cassels said MacIsaac’s work was never completed.

The Sun revealed this week that one of the two drugs offered by the Smoking Cessation Program - bupropion, marketed as Wellbutrin and Zyban - led to 64 hospitalizations, including 22 critical care cases, last year in B.C.

A report by the province's Drug and Poison Information Centre said the incidents

included 47 suspected suicide attempts and one death.

Red flags have been raised for elements. years about severe side effects, including death, linked to the other drug offered by B.C.'s relative Smoking Cessation Program. Champix has received a black box warning (the highest pharmaceutical graphic alert) in the U.S., is the subject of class action its lawsuits in B.C., Alberta and to Ontario, and is no longer covered other appropriate by the public Pharmacare system in France.

Cassels argues B.C. needs to stop paying for Champix and Zyban until residents are assured the drugs work properly and won't compromise health.

"Halt any government payment for this treatment and instantly commission an independent evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of this drug," he said.

When asked if B.C. should launch an independent review, Health Minister Terry Lake noted more than 26,000 B.C. residents take Zyban to quit smoking and insisted it is safe

if used according to doctors' advice.

"These drugs have gone through Health Canada approval, they've gone through the common drug review, the drug benefit council, they have been scrutinized with studies," Lake said.

"When you think of the benefits of stopping smoking there's no question these drugs have helped people and extended people's lives."

The ministry commissioned the federal government's Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network (DSEN) to conduct a "meta analysis" - a review of all published material on a drug, including reports produced by the pharmaceutical companies. The analysis of Champix has not yet been published, but Lake said it found when taken properly, the drug is safe, despite the potential for side effects.

"The study found Champix and Zyban, used for smoking cessation, did not increase instances of treated depression, anxiety or self-harm," added ministry spokeswoman Kristy Anderson.

But Cassels said such studies are clouded by the "rosiness" of the pharmaceutical company's reports on their own drugs.

"The research done by DSEN will be next to useless," he charged.

B.C.'s independent drug watchdog, the Therapeutics Initiative, asked in June 2012 to do an independent review of B.C.'s publicly funded smoking cessation drugs, but the health ministry declined the request in favour of the DSEN review..

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Fire ... story.html

[Xia33]

Yup...trust your medical professionals explicitly...(sarcasm)

[A_Britishcolumbian]

this tragic story of the bcliberal's treatment of these people will be coming back to the fore soon if this last week's activity in legislature are any indication.

discussing here as well... viewtopic.php?f=26&t=59408

Tyee legislative reporter sets agenda on health ministry firings review
By JANE ARMSTRONG
Published November 21, 2014 04:40 pm

Tyee reporter Andrew MacLeod's dogged reporting on the latest health ministry revelations dominated Thursday's Question Period in Victoria. After that, nearly every scribe, columnist and pundit in the legislative press gallery cited MacLeod's scoop.

MacLeod, our legislative bureau chief in Victoria, has been on the government for months about the extraordinary firings of seven health ministry staffers in 2012. Those firings ruined reputations and changed lives. One of the fired employees, Roderick MacIsaac, killed himself.

The government has since backed down and even apologized. But it's never explained why it publicly fired the employees in the first place. At the time, there were allegations of breach of privacy and conflict of interest. But no charges were ever laid.

Finally, last month, the government announced a review to probe what led to the firings. At the time, deputy attorney general Richard Fyfe described the review as "not a fault-finding mission," rather, a second look at the process that led to the decision to fire the individuals.

Enter Graham Whitmarsh, the former deputy health minister, himself fired last year. Now sidelined, he's worried the review will point the blame at him. So he contacted the government to air his concerns.

A lengthy back-and-forth ensued between Whitmarsh's lawyer and government officials. The money quote from the Whitmarsh camp? "Mr. Whitmarsh is extremely concerned that the (terms) of the review reflect the intention at the highest levels of government to find a convenient scapegoat, namely Mr. Whitmarsh."

Whitmarsh shared those exchanges with MacLeod this week. The result: an ever-deepening suspicion that the government review is itself tainted.

Vancouver Sun Columnist Vaughn Palmer said the Whitmarsh correspondence underscores the limitations of the government review. Quoting New Democrat Nicholas Simons, the government review is like "a review of nothing," Palmer wrote.

And the CBC released all 37 pages of documents upon which Andrew based his news-breaking story.

On Friday, CBC Radio's Friday political panel in Victoria weighed in. All three -- Martyn Brown, chief of staff to former premier Gordon Campbell, Norman Spector, a journalist and communications consultant, and Elizabeth Cull, a onetime NDP cabinet minister -- said the Whitmarsh letters speak volumes about the direction of the review.

"Graham Whitmarsh is quite right to be worried that (the government) is trying to lay the blame at his feet," Brown said, adding the letters highlight the need for an independent review.

There's no doubt MacLeod's reporting helped ensure this story stayed front and centre. The government review is due Dec. 19.

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2014/11 ... gs-Review/

[annexi]

Fired researcher was evaluating anti-smoking program with drugs that can cause severe reactions
Work never completed on B.C. health ministry study

When PhD student Roderick MacIsaac was fired from the Ministry of Health, his study of an anti-smoking program that was to be used in the evaluation of B.C.’s controversial Smoking Cessation Program was halted.

MacIsaac was one of seven ministry health researchers terminated in 2012, and he committed suicide in the months that followed.

Poor guy committed suicide. Why 7 researchers fired in 2012? Cutbacks? This is scandal.

[BelieveNothing]

Suicide - right - the most unlikely suicide is of one who gives their life actively to help save other lives.

Its funny that Christy Clark gives these drugs away freely to smokers in her motherly nurturing role as our premier.

I wrote to Christy Clark after she informed the public of the provincial governments decision to provide smoking cessation drugs and tools to smokers who choose to quit, I suggested that these tools are helpful but that even more effective would be to provide rehabilitation through programs similiar to drug rehab - since cigarettes are an addictive drug.

Christy did not agree, most likely because she prefers death over recovery and mastery of individuals.

With this new info - now i see why - since when does the government give anything away for free?

Other than vaccines - i see nothing.

[flamingfingers]

More on Roderick MacIsaac, the fired researcher who committed suicide and the ChristyLiberals 'heavyhanded' idiocity:

viewtopic.php?f=82&t=58936&p=1735333&hilit=Roderick+MacIsaac#p1735333

[annexi]

More on Roderick MacIsaac, the fired researcher who committed suicide and the ChristyLiberals 'heavyhanded' idiocity:

viewtopic.php?f=82&t=58936&p=1735333&hilit=Roderick+MacIsaac#p1735333

Did the RCMP ever find out why sensitive ministry data was being used in unapproved ways?

[flamingfingers]

Go to the link posted below and click on the highlighted portions to see actual reports and documents:

November 22, 2014
Health Firings Cover-Up
Is the government involved in a cover-up on why in September 2012 it fired 7 pharmaceutical researchers, cancelled 2 contractor's contracts and halted valuable research? Were the firings a ham-fisted response to well-intentioned researchers who were trying to expedite their work by cutting corners on red tape or were they a laser guided response that exploited a complaint so as to purge a unit that proved too troublesome for the tastes of some pharmaceutical companies, a theory mentioned by drug policy researcher Alan Cassels.

Dismissed just three days before his work as a co-op PhD student was to conclude, Roderick MacIsaa committed suicide December 2012. In the legislature on October 8, 2014 Premier Clark finally expressed sympathy to his family and said: "it was very appropriate that government apologize for what the Health Minister I think appropriately characterized as very heavy-handed actions." However, in the same statement the Premier claimed "there was a serious breach of the public’s privacy" when records were copied unencrypted to a USB stick, thereby qualifying her apology.

In light of the Premier's comments, former Ministry of Health Deputy Minister Graham Whitmarsh sensed he was being setup to take the fall for the firings. Through his lawyer he released 37 pages of documents to Andrew MacLeod, legislative reporter for The Tyee who wrote about Whitmarsh's concerns. Whitmarsh is accusing the government review of not being independent because of real and apparent conflicts of interest by those involved in drafting the terms of reference for the review. The response to Whitmarsh's lawyer was written by the Deputy Attorney General on behalf of government saying the review is limited and is not a fault-finding mission. That response led the NDP to say the review is "a sham designed to protect the premier."

The wholesale gutting of a department is unprecedented, especially when a normal response to their alleged errors would simply be a memo from an assistance deputy or perhaps the deputy instructing the staff where they went wrong and what to do in the future. Firing someone without escalating discipline and prior warning is bizarre. The government's October 3, 2014 news release on its apology to MacIsaa's family included a backgrounder with a timeline on events beginning in March 28, 2012 when a complaint was made to the Auditor General about alleged inappropriate practices. On October 21st Andrew MacLeod wrote: "Thanks to hundreds of emails leaked to The Tyee, we can now tell you that the concerns appear to have been driven by Alana James, a lawyer who worked as a senior health information advisor in the ministry." If it is true that James is the person who approached the Auditor General's office in March 2012, then any complete independent review of the subsequent events would have to include an interview with her. Given the terms of reference for the review it is not certain that will happen.

When the Whitmarsh papers were used in question period (video) on November 20th the Premier’s response was to wait for the release of the report on December 19th. Given the terms of reference, it is certain that key questions will remain despite the best efforts of respected lawyer Marcia McNeil.

Either through out-of-court settlements or the grievance procedure, actions arising from all but two of the firings and contract cancellations have been settled. Actions by Rebecca and William Warburton remain outstanding. If they are resolved out-of-court, the public may lose its last chance to see evidence disclosed on a disgraceful incident the government would just as soon cover-up.

http://www.strategicthoughts.com/

[A_Britishcolumbian]

“The government conduct would be absurd if the consequences were not so tragic and disgraceful,” said Adrian Dix, the NDP MLA for Vancouver-Kingsway. “The Liberal government failed to tell the RCMP for years that researchers had been exonerated. They covered it up. Yet they sent them a DVD of the Who and Peter Sellars’ great political satire Being There.”

Dix said that in September 2012 the government smeared the former employees by announcing that the RCMP was investigating them. It’s now clear there was no evidence that would justify an RCMP investigation.

And when it became clear within government that investigators had made allegations without proper evidence, that was never communicated to the RCMP, Dix said. That speaks to a “lack of character” on the part of the government officials involved, he added.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2016/11/10/RCMP- ... y-Firings/

[gman313]

don't smoke

[whatwhat]

don't smoke

Oh my goodness, you did it! You cured the entire population of their smoking addiction :)

[ferri]

*stay on topic please...shakes head...

[maryjane48]

it seems christy and hillary have alot in commmon , maybe we need a throw her in jail campain up here to .i fail to understand how this didnt end up in court with neglagence as the charge